Conceptual and methodological framework
Lacanian psychoanalysis
pp. 25-55
in: , Tales of research misconduct, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
Before addressing Lacan's views on scientific integrity and research misconduct, I will first outline his views on science as such. For Lacan, science basically entails a process of symbolisation which proceeds via instruments and gadgets (1972–1973/1975, p. 104), producing discursive "emissions" on a massive scale. Modern science eliminates ("decomposes") the world as we know it from naïve lifeworld experience, replacing it with a completely different kind of universe, composed of symbols (signifiers) referring to concepts (molecules, electrons, quarks, etc.) that represent enigmatic entities whose ontological status (whose materiality or realness) poses a challenge to human imagination (1972–1973/1975, p. 49). The progress of science is the progress of the symbolic order, consuming, incorporating, transforming and obliterating nature as described by Aristotle (1980), namely as φύσις: that which emerges, comes forward on its own accord, having its own inherent principles of change, that which is simply there, without our doing. Nature becomes obliterated and dissolved in the course of the ongoing symbolisation or hominisation of the planet (Lacan 1953–1954/1975, p. 291).