Viruses beyond epistemic fallacy

Abstract

Viruses beyond epistemic fallacy The call for contributions rightly underscores the magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis; virtually all aspects of life are affected. Moreover, no human is safe; the pandemic is global-thus threatening to subvert any territorial demarcation that inhabitants or analysts instigate. This levelling effect provokes questions about existence across or beyond human delineations (especially those purported to be 'ontological'), and a perceptive anthropology should confront this challenge squarely. Specifically, I argue for theory rooted in a philosophical realism that overcomes epistemic fallacies (Bhaskar 2008: 397), i.e. the mistaken presumption that queries about existence can only be framed in terms of queries about human knowledge, such as in terms of people's 'concepts'. The core question is, to reiterate Laidlaw's critique, '[W]hat on earth happens at the boundaries between … different ontologies, and when things or people cross from one to another?' (2012: np). Or, to rephrase the challenge: What, exactly, are 'the things' that now traverse all kinds of human-made boundaries? Contemplate the logical implications of multi-naturalist ontology! Presently, scientists agree that coronaviruses are behind the epidemic, while some (sceptics or

The Ethnographic Quest in the Midst of COVID-19

“…In this frame, our evolutionary history as hominids and social beings indicates our need to touch our faces constantly, inevitably causing the diffusion of pathogens in our bodily entry points ( Hartigan, 2020 ). As the pandemic threatens to subvert any territorial demarcation ( Bråten, 2020 ), we need to keep our bodies away from potential socio-material contacts, including field research. As we shall see, this predicament encourages us to devise creative ways of ethnographic investigation to surmount the socio-physical confinement and onto-epistemological suspension.…”

The ‘onto-logics’ of perspectival multi-naturalism: A realist critique

“…And as it spread (in its ever-transforming shape) throughout the globe in 2020, it engaged the most varied forms of human knowledge. From the realist viewpoint, it would be rather absurd to claim that the virus itself took shape after these conceptions (what people thought 'it' was) and equally problematic, of course, to assume that virus deniers cannot contract COVID-19 (Bråten, 2020).…”