The Science Wars

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Science Wars

Author : Steven L. Goldman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197518621
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis Science Wars by : Steven L. Goldman

Download or read book Science Wars written by Steven L. Goldman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-25 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is ample evidence that it is difficult for the general public to understand and internalize scientific facts. Disputes over such facts are often amplified amid political controversies. As we've seen with climate change and even COVID-19, politicians rely on the perceptions of their constituents when making decisions that impact public policy. So, how do we make sure that what the public understands is accurate? In this book, Steven L. Goldman traces the public's suspicion of scientific knowledge claims to a broad misunderstanding, reinforced by scientists themselves, of what it is that scientists know, how they know it, and how to act on the basis of it. In sixteen chapters, Goldman takes readers through the history of scientific knowledge from Plato and Aristotle, through the birth of modern science and its maturation, into a powerful force for social change to the present day. He explains how scientists have wrestled with their own understanding of what it is that they know, that theories evolve, and why the public misunderstands the reliability of scientific knowledge claims. With many examples drawn from the history of philosophy and science, the chapters illustrate an ongoing debate over how we know what we say we know and the relationship between knowledge and reality. Goldman covers a rich selection of ideas from the founders of modern science and John Locke's response to Newton's theories to Thomas Kuhn's re-interpretation of scientific knowledge and the Science Wars that followed it. Goldman relates these historical disputes to current issues, underlining the important role scientists play in explaining their own research to nonscientists and the effort nonscientists must make to incorporate science into public policies. A narrative exploration of scientific knowledge, Science Wars engages with the arguments of both sides by providing thoughtful scientific, philosophical, and historical discussions on every page.

After the Science Wars

Author : Keith Ashman
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113461618X
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (346 download)

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Book Synopsis After the Science Wars by : Keith Ashman

Download or read book After the Science Wars written by Keith Ashman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-09 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays by leading philosophers and scientists focusing on the debate in science between those who believe that science is above criticism and those who do not.

Beyond the Hoax

Author : Alan Sokal
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191623342
Total Pages : 771 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond the Hoax by : Alan Sokal

Download or read book Beyond the Hoax written by Alan Sokal and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-02-11 with total page 771 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1996, Alan Sokal, a Professor of Physics at New York University, wrote a paper for the cultural-studies journal Social Text, entitled 'Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity'. It was reviewed, accepted and published. Sokal immediately confessed that the whole article was a hoax - a cunningly worded paper designed to expose and parody the style of extreme postmodernist criticism of science. The story became front-page news around the world and triggered fierce and wide-ranging controversy. Sokal is one of the most powerful voices in the continuing debate about the status of evidence-based knowledge. In Beyond the Hoax he turns his attention to a new set of targets - pseudo-science, religion, and misinformation in public life. 'Whether my targets are the postmodernists of the left, the fundamentalists of the right, or the muddle-headed of all political and apolitical stripes, the bottom line is that clear thinking, combined with a respect for evidence, are of the utmost importance to the survival of the human race in the twenty-first century.' The book also includes a hugely illuminating annotated text of the Hoax itself, and a reflection on the furore it provoked.

Beyond the Science Wars

Author : Ullica Christina Olofsdotter Segerstråle
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791446188
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (461 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond the Science Wars by : Ullica Christina Olofsdotter Segerstråle

Download or read book Beyond the Science Wars written by Ullica Christina Olofsdotter Segerstråle and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2000-08-03 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contextualizes the "Science Wars" from interdisciplinary sociological, historical, scientific, political, and cultural perspectives.

Gravity's Shadow

Author : Harry Collins
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226113795
Total Pages : 896 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis Gravity's Shadow by : Harry Collins

Download or read book Gravity's Shadow written by Harry Collins and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-08-15 with total page 896 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the theory of relativity, we are constantly bathed in gravitational radiation. When stars explode or collide, a portion of their mass becomes energy that disturbs the very fabric of the space-time continuum like ripples in a pond. But proving the existence of these waves has been difficult; the cosmic shudders are so weak that only the most sensitive instruments can be expected to observe them directly. Fifteen times during the last thirty years scientists have claimed to have detected gravitational waves, but so far none of those claims have survived the scrutiny of the scientific community. Gravity's Shadow chronicles the forty-year effort to detect gravitational waves, while exploring the meaning of scientific knowledge and the nature of expertise. Gravitational wave detection involves recording the collisions, explosions, and trembling of stars and black holes by evaluating the smallest changes ever measured. Because gravitational waves are so faint, their detection will come not in an exuberant moment of discovery but through a chain of inference; for forty years, scientists have debated whether there is anything to detect and whether it has yet been detected. Sociologist Harry Collins has been tracking the progress of this research since 1972, interviewing key scientists and delineating the social process of the science of gravitational waves. Engagingly written and authoritatively comprehensive, Gravity's Shadow explores the people, institutions, and government organizations involved in the detection of gravitational waves. This sociological history will prove essential not only to sociologists and historians of science but to scientists themselves.

Science Wars

Author : Andrew Ross
Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780822318712
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (187 download)

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Book Synopsis Science Wars by : Andrew Ross

Download or read book Science Wars written by Andrew Ross and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzing the antidemocratic tendencies within science and its institutions, they insist on a more accountable relationship between scientists and the communities and environments affected by their research.

Cogent Science in Context

Author : William Rehg
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262264463
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis Cogent Science in Context by : William Rehg

Download or read book Cogent Science in Context written by William Rehg and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-08-19 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A proposal for an interdisciplinary, context-sensitive framework for assessing the strength of scientific arguments that melds Jürgen Habermas's discourse theory and sociological contextualism. Recent years have seen a series of intense, increasingly acrimonious debates over the status and legitimacy of the natural sciences. These “science wars” take place in the public arena—with current battles over evolution and global warming—and in academia, where assumptions about scientific objectivity have been called into question. Given these hostilities, what makes a scientific claim merit our consideration? In Cogent Science in Context, William Rehg examines what makes scientific arguments cogent—that is, strong and convincing—and how we should assess that cogency. Drawing on the tools of argumentation theory, Rehg proposes a multidimensional, context-sensitive framework both for understanding the cogency of scientific arguments and for conducting cooperative interdisciplinary assessments of the cogency of actual scientific arguments. Rehg closely examines Jürgen Habermas's argumentation theory and its implications for understanding cogency, applying it to a case from high-energy physics. A series of problems, however, beset Habermas's approach. In response, Rehg outlines his own “critical contextualist” approach, which uses argumentation-theory categories in a new and more context-sensitive way inspired by ethnography of science.

Knowledge and the World: Challenges Beyond the Science Wars

Author : Martin Carrier
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3662081296
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Knowledge and the World: Challenges Beyond the Science Wars by : Martin Carrier

Download or read book Knowledge and the World: Challenges Beyond the Science Wars written by Martin Carrier and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fundamental question whether, or in which sense, science informs us about the real world has pervaded the history of thought since antiquity. Is what science tells us about the world determined unambiguously by facts or does the content of any scientific theory in some way depend on the human condition? "Sokal`s hoax" added a new dimension to this controversial debate, which very quickly came to been known as "Science Wars". "Knowledge and the World" examines and reviews the broad range of philosophical positions on this issue, stretching from realism to relativism, to expound the epistemic merits of science, and to address the central question: in which sense can science justifiably claim to provide a truthful portrait of reality? This book addresses everyone interested in the philosophy and history of science, and in particular in the interplay between the social and natural sciences.

Higher Superstition

Author : Paul R. Gross
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 1421404877
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (214 download)

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Book Synopsis Higher Superstition by : Paul R. Gross

Download or read book Higher Superstition written by Paul R. Gross and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 1997-12-03 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The widely acclaimed response to the postmodernists attacks on science, with a new afterword. With the emergence of "cultural studies" and the blurring of once-clear academic boundaries, scholars are turning to subjects far outside their traditional disciplines and areas of expertise. In Higher Superstition scientists Paul Gross and Norman Levitt raise serious questions about the growing criticism of science by humanists and social scientists on the "academic left." This edition of Higher Superstition includes a new afterword by the authors.

The One Culture?

Author : Jay A. Labinger
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226467244
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis The One Culture? by : Jay A. Labinger

Download or read book The One Culture? written by Jay A. Labinger and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-08-15 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: So far the "Science Wars" have generated far more heat than light. Combatants from one or the other of what C. P. Snow famously called "the two cultures" (science versus the arts and humanities) have launched bitter attacks but have seldom engaged in constructive dialogue about the central issues. In The One Culture?, Jay A. Labinger and Harry Collins have gathered together some of the world's foremost scientists and sociologists of science to exchange opinions and ideas rather than insults. The contributors find surprising areas of broad agreement in a genuine conversation about science, its legitimacy and authority as a means of understanding the world, and whether science studies undermines the practice and findings of science and scientists. The One Culture? is organized into three parts. The first consists of position papers written by scientists and sociologists of science, which were distributed to all the participants. The second presents commentaries on these papers, drawing out and discussing their central themes and arguments. In the third section, participants respond to these critiques, offering defenses, clarifications, and modifications of their positions. Who can legitimately speak about science? What is the proper role of scientific knowledge? How should scientists interact with the rest of society in decision making? Because science occupies such a central position in the world today, such questions are vitally important. Although there are no simple solutions, The One Culture? does show the reader exactly what is at stake in the Science Wars, and provides a valuable framework for how to go about seeking the answers we so urgently need. Contributors include: Constance K. Barsky, Jean Bricmont, Harry Collins, Peter Dear, Jane Gregory, Jay A. Labinger, Michael Lynch, N. David Mermin, Steve Miller, Trevor Pinch, Peter R. Saulson, Steven Shapin, Alan Sokal, Steven Weinberg, Kenneth G. Wilson

Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars

Author : Ethan Pollock
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780691124674
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (246 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars by : Ethan Pollock

Download or read book Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars written by Ethan Pollock and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction: Stalin, science, and politics after the Second World War -- "A Marxist should not write like that": the crisis on the "philosophical front" -- "The future belongs to Michurin": the agricultural academy session of 1948 -- "We can always shoot them later": physics, politics, and the atomic bomb -- "Battles of opinions and open criticism": Stalin intervenes in linguistics -- "Attack the detractors with certainty of total success": the Pavlov session of 1950 -- "Everyone is waiting": Stalin and the economic problems of communism -- Conclusion: science and the fate of the Stalinist system.

The Science Wars

Author : Keith M. Parsons
Publisher : Contemporary Issues
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Science Wars by : Keith M. Parsons

Download or read book The Science Wars written by Keith M. Parsons and published by Contemporary Issues. This book was released on 2003 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is science our most precious possession or has our culture elevated science into a false idol? Is technology a useful servant or a malign genie? These questions are at the centre of the 'science wars' currently being waged over the role and future of science and technology in our society. This balanced selection of a variety of perspectives on the hotly contested role of science and technology in contemporary society will clarify this vital debate for both specialists and non-specialists.

The Science of Star Wars

Author : Jeanne Cavelos
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1429971762
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis The Science of Star Wars by : Jeanne Cavelos

Download or read book The Science of Star Wars written by Jeanne Cavelos and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Could the science fiction of Star Wars be the actual science of tomorrow? -How close are we to creating robots that look and act like R2-D2 and C-3PO? -Can we access a "force" with our minds to move objects and communicate telepathically with each other? -How might spaceships like the Millennium Falcon make the exhilarating jump into hyperspace? -What kind of environment could spawn a Wookiee? -Could a single blast from the Death Star destroy an entire planet? -Could light sabers possibly be built, and if so, how would they work? -Do Star Wars aliens look like "real" aliens might? -What would living on a desert planet like Tatooine be like? -Why does Darth Vader require an artificial respirator? Discover the answers to these and many other fascinating questions of physics, astronomy, biology and more, as a noted scientist and Star Wars enthusiast explores The Science of Star Wars.

Drawing Out Leviathan

Author : Keith M. Parsons
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 025310842X
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (531 download)

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Book Synopsis Drawing Out Leviathan by : Keith M. Parsons

Download or read book Drawing Out Leviathan written by Keith M. Parsons and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2001-10-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "... are dinosaurs social constructs? Do we really know anything about dinosaurs? Might not all of our beliefs about dinosaurs merely be figments of the paleontological imagination? A few years ago such questions would have seemed preposterous, even nonsensical. Now they must have a serious answer." At stake in the "Science Wars" that have raged in academe and in the media is nothing less than the standing of science in our culture. One side argues that science is a "social construct," that it does not discover facts about the world, but rather constructs artifacts disguised as objective truths. This view threatens the authority of science and rejects science's claims to objectivity, rationality, and disinterested inquiry. Drawing Out Leviathan examines this argument in the light of some major debates about dinosaurs: the case of the wrong-headed dinosaur, the dinosaur "heresies" of the 1970s, and the debate over the extinction of dinosaurs. Keith Parsons claims that these debates, though lively and sometimes rancorous, show that evidence and logic, not arbitrary "rules of the game," remained vitally important, even when the debates were at their nastiest. They show science to be a complex set of activities, pervaded by social influences, and not easily reducible to any stereotype. Parsons acknowledges that there are lessons to be learned by scientists from their would-be adversaries, and the book concludes with some recommendations for ending the Science Wars.

Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal

Author : Heather E. Douglas
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN 13 : 082297357X
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (229 download)

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Book Synopsis Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal by : Heather E. Douglas

Download or read book Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal written by Heather E. Douglas and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2009-07-15 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role of science in policymaking has gained unprecedented stature in the United States, raising questions about the place of science and scientific expertise in the democratic process. Some scientists have been given considerable epistemic authority in shaping policy on issues of great moral and cultural significance, and the politicizing of these issues has become highly contentious. Since World War II, most philosophers of science have purported the concept that science should be "value-free." In Science, Policy and the Value-Free Ideal, Heather E. Douglas argues that such an ideal is neither adequate nor desirable for science. She contends that the moral responsibilities of scientists require the consideration of values even at the heart of science. She lobbies for a new ideal in which values serve an essential function throughout scientific inquiry, but where the role values play is constrained at key points, thus protecting the integrity and objectivity of science. In this vein, Douglas outlines a system for the application of values to guide scientists through points of uncertainty fraught with moral valence.Following a philosophical analysis of the historical background of science advising and the value-free ideal, Douglas defines how values should-and should not-function in science. She discusses the distinctive direct and indirect roles for values in reasoning, and outlines seven senses of objectivity, showing how each can be employed to determine the reliability of scientific claims. Douglas then uses these philosophical insights to clarify the distinction between junk science and sound science to be used in policymaking. In conclusion, she calls for greater openness on the values utilized in policymaking, and more public participation in the policymaking process, by suggesting various models for effective use of both the public and experts in key risk assessments.

Thomas Kuhn and the Science Wars

Author : Ziauddin Sardar
Publisher : Totem Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 84 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis Thomas Kuhn and the Science Wars by : Ziauddin Sardar

Download or read book Thomas Kuhn and the Science Wars written by Ziauddin Sardar and published by Totem Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows how science has become a major contested cultural symbol, and suggests that we need a new 'post-normal' synthesis in which the old debates are transcended. Science is not about demonstrations by experts, but dialogue among stakeholders. This is the new face of science, one which gives Kuhn's seminal insights new life.

Who Rules in Science?

Author : James Robert Brown
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674028876
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (288 download)

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Book Synopsis Who Rules in Science? by : James Robert Brown

Download or read book Who Rules in Science? written by James Robert Brown and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if something as seemingly academic as the so-called science wars were to determine how we live? This eye-opening book reveals how little we've understood about the ongoing pitched battles between the sciences and the humanities--and how much may be at stake. James Brown's starting point is C. P. Snow's famous book, Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, which set the terms for the current debates. But that little book did much more than identify two new, opposing cultures, Brown contends: It also claimed that scientists are better qualified than nonscientists to solve political and social problems. In short, the true significance of Snow's treatise was its focus on the question of who should rule--a question that remains vexing, pressing, and politically explosive today. In Who Rules in Science? Brown takes us through the various engagements in the science wars--from the infamous "Sokal affair" to angry confrontations over the nature of evidence, the possibility of objectivity, and the methods of science--to show how the contested terrain may be science, but the prize is political: Whoever wins the science wars will have an unprecedented influence on how we are governed. Brown provides the most comprehensive and balanced assessment yet of the science wars. He separates the good arguments from the bad, and exposes the underlying message: Science and social justice are inextricably linked. His book is essential reading if we are to understand the forces making and remaking our world.