Reflections on Image and Logic: Philosophy and the History of Experimentation on Rous Sarcoma Virus in the Early to Mid 1900s
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Date
2016-06
Authors
Kachelmeier, Inina
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
When Rous published his experiments on transmissible chicken sarcomas at the
beginning of the 201h century, laboratory research was just starting to grow more
independent from the clinic. Later changes in the field and the growing emphasis on
genetics meant that cancer came to be characterized not just as a physical phenomenon
but also as a chemical and genetic condition within the body. I will begin my thesis by
using Peter Galison's Image and Logic to introduce the topics of intercalated
periodization, experimental image and logic traditions, and the utility of machines as
loci of and participants in cross cultural exchange. I will then use the history of early
experimentation on RSV as a model of scientific change. The interaction of virologists,
cancer biologists, pathologists, bacteriophage researchers, experimental techniques, and
technicians within experiments on RSV negotiated the importance of tumor virology to
cancer research. Ultimately, I will show the emergence of distinct image and logic
traditions within the early history of RSV, and I will discuss how images and logic
represent fundamentally different modes of knowledge acquisition.
Description
62 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Philosophy and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Science, Spring 2016.
Keywords
Rous Sarcoma Virus, RSV, Science history, Philosophy, Virology, Cancer, Experimentation, Twentieth Century