---
title: "Steve Fuller (sociologist)"
chunk: 3/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fuller_(sociologist)"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:31:26.979527+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Dissent Over Descent ===
In 2008, Fuller's book on the intelligent design controversy, Dissent Over Descent: Intelligent Design's Challenge to Darwinism was published. Steven Poole of The Guardian wrote: "book is an epoch-hopping parade of straw men, incompetent reasoning and outright gibberish, as when evolution is argued to share with astrology a commitment to "action at a distance", except that the distance is in time rather than space. It's intellectual quackery like this that gives philosophy of science a bad name." Michael Ruse, Philosopher of Science at Florida State University wrote in the journal Science that Fuller's book "is completely wrong and is backed by no sound scholarship whatsoever. In at least one case, Fuller makes his case by an egregious misreading—of something I wrote about the role of genetic drift in Sewall Wright's shifting balance theory. For the record, Charles Darwin set out to provide a cause, what he called—following his mentors like William Whewell (who in turn referred back to Newton)—a true cause or vera causa. Darwin felt, and historians and philosophers of science as well as practicing evolutionary biologists still feel, that he succeeded…" In a "book of the week" review by retired Divinity Professor Keith Ward in the Times Higher Education Supplement, the book was praised for providing often overlooked information and provocative interpretations, but was criticized for a number of inaccuracies and misrepresentations.
A. C. Grayling, in New Humanist, wrote that the book contains a "mark of ignorance and historical short-sightedness on Fuller's part". In response, Fuller wrote an online response saying "if Grayling's grasp of the history of science went beyond head-banging standards, he would realize that our current level of scientific achievement would never have been reached, and more importantly that we would not be striving to achieve more, had chance-based explanations dominated over the design-based ones in our thinking about reality." To which Grayling wrote: "Steve Fuller complains, as do all authors whose books are panned, that I did not read his book properly (or at all)." He continued, "I'll take on Fuller any day regarding the history and theology of the various versions of Christianity with which humanity has been burdened. […] The same applies to the history of science."

== Selected bibliography ==

=== Books ===
Fuller, Steve (2002) [1988]. Social epistemology (2nd ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253215154.
Fuller, Steve; Woolgar, Steve; de Mey, Marc; Shinn, Terry (1989). The cognitive turn: sociological and psychological perspectives on science. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. ISBN 9789401578257.
Fuller, Steve (1993) [1989]. Philosophy of science and its discontents (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. ISBN 9780898620207.
Fuller, Steve; Collier, James H. (2004) [1993]. Philosophy, rhetoric, and the end of knowledge a new beginning for science and technology studies (2nd ed.). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 9780805847680.
Fuller, Steve (1997). Science. Concepts in Social Sciences. Milton Keynes, UK / Minneapolis US: Open University Press / University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780335198481.
Fuller, Steve (2000). The governance of science: ideology and the future of the open society. Issues in society. Buckingham Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 9780335202348.
Fuller, Steve (2000). Thomas Kuhn: a philosophical history for our times. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226268965.
Fuller, Steve (2002). Knowledge management foundations. Hartland Four Corners, Vermont Boston: KMCI Press Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 9780750673655.
Fuller, Steve (2004). Kuhn vs. Popper: the struggle for the soul of science. Thriplow, UK / New York, US: Icon Books / Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231134286
Fuller, Steve (2005). The intellectual. Thriplow, UK: Icon Books. ISBN 9781840467215.
Fuller, Steve (2006). The philosophy of science and technology studies. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415941051.
Fuller, Steve (2006). The new sociological imagination. London Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE. ISBN 9780761947578.
Fuller, Steve (2007). The knowledge book key concepts in philosophy, science, and culture. Stocksfield England / Canada: Acumen / McGill-Queens University Press. ISBN 9781844650989.
Fuller, Steve (2007). New frontiers in science and technology. Cambridge, UK Malden, Massachusetts: Polity. ISBN 9780745636948.
Fuller, Steve (2007). Science vs. religion?: intelligent design and the problem of evolution. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 9780745641225.
Fuller, Steve (2008). Dissent over descent: intelligent design's challenge to Darwinism. Thriplow, Cambridgeshire: Icon. ISBN 9781840468045.
Fuller, Steve (2009). The sociology of intellectual life: the career of the mind in and around the academy. Los Angeles London: SAGE. ISBN 9781412928380.
Fuller, Steve (2010). Science. The art of living. Durham U.K: Acumen. ISBN 9781844652044.
Fuller, Steve (2011). Humanity 2.0: what it means to be human past, present and future. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230233430.
Fuller, Steve (2013). Preparing for life in humanity 2.0. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137277060.
Fuller, Steve; Lipinska, Veronika (2014). The proactionary imperative: a foundation for transhumanism. Basingstoke, UK New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137433091.
Fuller, Steve (2015). Knowledge: the philosophical quest in history. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781844658183.
Fuller, Steve (2016). The Academic Caesar: University Leadership is Hard. Los Angeles London: SAGE. ISBN 9781473961784.
Fuller, Steve (2018). Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game. London: Anthem Press. ISBN 9781783086931.
Fuller, Steve (2019). Nietzschean Meditations: Untimely Thoughts at the Dawn of the Transhuman Era. Basel, Switzerland: Schwabe Verlag. ISBN 9783796539466.
Fuller, Steve (2020). A Player's Guide to the Post-Truth Condition: The Name of the Game. London: Anthem Press. ISBN 9781785276057.
Fuller, Steve (2023). Back to the University's Future: The Second Coming of Humboldt. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 9783031363269.

=== Chapters in books ===
Fuller, Steve (1992). "Social epistemology and the research agenda of science studies". In Pickering, Andrew (ed.). Science as practice and culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 390–428. ISBN 9780226668017.
Fuller, Steve (1996). "Does science put an end to history, or history to science? Or, why being pro-science is harder than you think". In Ross, Andrew (ed.). Science wars. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. pp. 29–60. ISBN 9780822318712.