An Inquiry Into the Modes of Existence

What kind of contribution is expected/encouraged?

Contributions are absolutely necessary to the success of the survey. All relevant contributions will be incorporated into the final versions – paper and digital – with each time, an acknowledgement of the author.We cannot extract ourselves from our current difficulties unless we work together. We seek to share the research experience and as such we are very open.

What are we calling data?

The term is a little simplistic, especially since we know from the sociology of science that data are always “obtained” and in no way arrive fully-formed. We are calling our research data, roughly, any document that undergoes a trial at the point where two modes really clash; this is what we call “category errors”. This clash allows us to draw out a contrast that we were not aware of until then.

What is the link between AIME and Actor Network Theory (ANT)?

Since the two projects have been running in parallel for over twenty-five years they obviously both have a great many connections. We have also maintained a kind of ‘software compatibility’ between the two projects. As a result, every research program that ‘runs’ on ANT should also ‘run’ on AIME!

Are scientists to feel invited to the inquiry or excluded from the very start?

This question is not unique to scientists but to any practitioner to whom the AIME project addresses itself. In general, a description of scientific practice carried out along the lines of the sociology and history of science, should represent a welcome change for scientists whose activity is usually described in the most abstract terms by epistemology or in the most cynical terms by critics.

Is AIME taking magic, spirit and other invisible entities seriously?

The answer is definitely yes. It would be astonishing for an anthropological project not to take the invisible entities with which informants build their world very seriously. What is original about the AIME project is that it raises a set of questions that allow to the inquirer to define, for each claim to existence, the specifications of these entities.