Thin Description: Surface and Depth in Science and Science Studies

Since the time of the French Revolution, a sequence of modern thinkers has theorized the thinning of the world in relation to the growth of science. In a large, diverse, and politicized world, subtlety seems to recede into nooks and corners, while information is revered for its ready accessibility and seeming solidity. The sciences, adapting their public voice and some of their inward practices to such expectations, have over the twentieth century flourished more and more in the public sphere as preeminent sites of facts, data, and statistics. Yet the aspiration to superficiality yields up all kinds of unexpected consequences, which provide fascinating opportunities for historical and social studies of science if we can ourselves resist the siren song of thinness.