Donna Haraway's "Modest_Witness@ Second_Millenium" (Book Note)

 

In "Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium," Donna Haraway takes readers on a journey through the intellectual landscape of the Second Millennium. Organized around the titular email address, the book delves into the emergence and deconstruction of the figure of the modest witness in early scientific discourse. Haraway explores how this figure, epitomized by Robert Boyle's experiment with the air pump, became synonymous with the scientific enterprise, positioning certain subjects—typically white, propertied men—as impartial observers and knowers within a controlled public space, while excluding women and other "corporeal others."

 

Haraway emphasizes that the construction of the modest witness was part of a broader effort by men in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to rewrite masculinity and protect science from feminization. However, she challenges the notion of objectivity represented by the modest witness, broadening the discourse around meaning, knowledge, and technoscience. Building on themes from her influential "Cyborg Manifesto," Haraway continues to view science, technology, and knowledge as social practices with real consequences.

 

Throughout the book, Haraway engages in a conversation with feminist standpoint theory, rejecting the possibility of an absolute position with respect to knowledge while striving to find new epistemological terrain. She explores the troubling "identities" of the copyrighted FemaleMan and the trademarked OncoMouse, situating them within the temporal and spatial context of the Second Millennium. These explorations serve to challenge the uncritical attitude of Big Science discourse and the single-mindedly cataclysmic tone of Left discourse.

 

Haraway embarks on a journey through the realms of science fiction and social theory, drawing upon the tropes of the FemaleMan and the trademarked OncoMouse to challenge conventional boundaries and interrogate the intersections of science, culture, and technology. These figures serve as disruptive forces, destabilizing the discourse around uncritical science and anti-science leftism.

 

The FemaleMan, inspired by Joanna Russ's novel of the same name, emerges as a complex and multifaceted character, disrupting traditional gendered categories and challenging expectations of utopian or dystopian narratives. Haraway adopts the FemaleMan as a surrogate and sister, recognizing her as a participant in nonmodern conversations about figuration and worldly practice in technoscience. Similarly, the trademarked OncoMouse becomes a sister trope, embodying questions about technoscience and the artificiality of dualisms between humans and animals, culture and nature, and science and technology.

 

Together, the FemaleMan and the OncoMouse destabilize established discourses, prompting critical reflection on the boundaries between science and social theory. Haraway's project aims to rewrite the concept of witnessing and contribute to a more democratic discourse about the social practices of science and technology. Drawing on Harding's notion of strong objectivity and bell hooks' concept of "yearning," she advocates for a reconfiguration of foundational assumptions and emphasizes the importance of locality in knowledge-making practices.

 

Haraway calls for a mutated modest witness, one that is self-aware, accountable, and anti-racist, situated within the furnace of technoscientific practice. She explores this concept within the context of global capital, technoscience, and the left's engagement with scientific discourse. Haraway's text is enriched with artwork, advertisements, and cartoons, serving to illustrate the intersections between power, knowledge, identity, and science. While the paintings by Lynn Randolph may not fully align with her incisive analysis, they contribute to the exploration of complex issues relating to science, culture, power, and globalization.