“Science as an Adventure” — Simon Gusman (UU)

Chesley Bonestell, Exploring Mars, 1953.

The allure of adventure is all around us. Who would not prefer an adventurous life over a mundane one? Whether it is thrilling experiences, travels to faraway lands, or passionate love affairs, adventurous existence is something many people look for. Even those of us who do not necessarily want to experience adventures directly, often engage with adventure stories. We spend a lot of our time watching the stories of fictional heroes portrayed in Hollywood movies and television series, whose endeavors are filled with quests and challenges, giving us a sense of excitement and wonder not often found in everyday life. In addition, many companies try to sell their products through adventure. Ranging from cars to vacations and from toothpaste to elderly care, countless products and services promise their customers an adventurous existence once the proper purchase has been made. We also see adventure in the world of politics. Many societies locate their origins in almost mythical origin stories, or claim descent from adventurous leaders and forefathers. Many contemporary leaders similarly portray themselves as stereotypical adventurer types (the warrior, the outdoorsman, the trailblazer, and so on). The idea that life can be one great adventure has been criticized by many thinkers, most prominently by French philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir and Pierre Bourdieu. Their critiques can be used to problematize our contemporary obsession with adventure.

In this seminar, we would like to apply this perspective to our own practices as researchers and teachers. Science itself and other forms of research can also be considered an adventure. Daring individuals who embark on the quest for knowledge, piercing the veil of everyday opinion and finding true knowledge about the workings of the world behind the scenes. Although this view is perhaps a bit exaggerated and dramatized, it still permeates in the way science is sometimes perceived. We want to shed light on the ways in which we are implicated in maintaining the view of Science as adventure. By drawing parallels between popular culture and philosophical critique, we would like to investigate in what ways scientific practice can be considered an adventure, and how we can learn from this in the way we conduct research and teach it to our students.

Simon Gusman is assistant professor Liberal Arts & Sciences at Utrecht University. His research concerns contemporary French philosophy applied to social themes and popular culture. As a member of SILT he also focuses on the philosophy of interdisciplinarity and personal reflection.

You can register for this seminar here. This session is part of the Transmission in Motion seminar (2024-2025): “Implicatedness” To stay updated with more seminar sessions, please subscribe to our newsletter.

Suggesting reading:

• Latour, Bruno (2004). Politics of nature: how to bring the sciences into democracy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Gusman, Simon & Kleinherenbrink, Arjen (2018). Introduction of ‘The Illusion of Adventure’, originally in Avonturen bestaan niet. Amsterdam: Boom uitgevers.