The sciences of modernity set out with the aim of draining the swamps of irrationality and finding rational explanations for the phenomena of the world. To this end, a comprehensive programme of disenchantment has been launched, in which sharp dividing lines are drawn between knowledge and belief, facts and values, science and society. The cracks in this model are evident, but caution is needed: at a time when the dismantling of the sciences has become the daily bread of a mob of fundamentalists and neo-fascists, it is unwise to conclude from such fault lines that the results of scientific research are any more right or wrong than any other assertion. It is, however, worth bearing in mind that knowledge often arises at the boundaries between logic and intuition, powers and nights, clarity and reverie.
Michael Hagner explores the critical zones of knowledge through essayistic approaches and concludes: every form of knowledge bears responsibility for the spaces and dreams it inhabits.
Non-fiction
Michael Hagner, born in 1960, was Professor of Science Studies at ETH Zurich until 2025. For his work, he has been awarded, amongst other honours, the Sigmund Freud Prize for Scientific Prose from the German Academy for Language and Literature, as well as the Martin Warnke Medal and the Science Prize from the Aby Warburg Foundation. His most recent publication is Seeing Foucault’s Pendulum. Between Science, Politics and Art.
