Multiple Ontologies in Pain Management: Toward a Postplural Rhetoric of Science

摘要

This article uses data obtained from a 2-year study-observation, survey, written- and verbal-artifact analysis, and interviews-of an interdisciplinary organization of pain management professionals to illustrate the analytic advantages of Mol and Latour's multiple-ontologies theories over incommensurability theory in understanding interdisciplinary practice. We demonstrate that pain science and medicine encompass a variety of practices that transcend disciplinary boundaries in ways not accounted for with incommensurability theory. After explicating multiple ontology theory and illustrating its analytic potential, we conclude by recommending a postplural model for inquiry into rhetoric of science.