Michel Serres and French Philosophy of Science

"Massimiliano Simons provides the first systematic study of Serres's work in the context of twentieth-century French philosophy of science. By proposing new readings of Serres's philosophy, he creates a synthesis between his predecessors, Gaston Bachelard, Georges Canguilhem, and Louis Althusser as well as contemporary Francophone philosophers of science such as Bruno Latour and Isabelle Stengers. Simons situates Serres's unique contribution through his notion of the quasi-object, a concept, he argues, that organizes great parts of Serres's work into a promising philosophy of science as well as providing a challenge to the narrower field of French epistemology, to which it has often been limited. Showing how Serres's philosophy can serve as a normative approach to science and technology, 'Michel Serres and French Philosophy of Science' takes in themes of materiality, religiosity, modernity and ecology to advance a timely alternative to philosophy of science for contemporary life."--