The Disunity of Science
Boundaries, Contexts, and Power
Published on 1. August 1996
Book
Hardback
584 pages
978-0-8047-2436-4 (ISBN)
Description
Is science unified or disunified? Over the last century, the question has raised the interest (and hackles) of scientists, philosophers, historians, and sociologists of science, for at stake is how science and society fit together. Recent years have seen a turn largely against the rhetoric of unity, ranging from the please of condensed matter physicists for disciplinary autonomy all the way to discussions in the humanities and social sciences that involve local history, feminism, multiculturalism, postmodernism, scientific relativism and realism, and social constructivism. Many of these varied aspects of the debate over the disunity of science are reflected in this volume, which brings together a number of scholars studying science who otherwise have had little to say to each other: feminist theorists, philosophers of science, sociologists of science.
How does the context of discover shape knowledge? What are the philosophical consequences of a disunified science? Does, for example, an antirealism, a realism, or an arealism become defensible within a picture of local scientific knowledge? What politics lies behind and follows from a picture of the world of science more like a quilt than a pyramid? Who gains and loses if representation of science has standards that vary from place to place, field to field, and practitioner to practitioner.
How does the context of discover shape knowledge? What are the philosophical consequences of a disunified science? Does, for example, an antirealism, a realism, or an arealism become defensible within a picture of local scientific knowledge? What politics lies behind and follows from a picture of the world of science more like a quilt than a pyramid? Who gains and loses if representation of science has standards that vary from place to place, field to field, and practitioner to practitioner.
Reviews / Votes
"This is a very important work, with contributions by many of the most prominent scholars in science studies....It actually delivers on its promise to renew discussion and develop fresh ideas about the allegation that the sciences are no longer (or never were) unified by a single theoretical view of nature or a methodological foundation." -Michael Lynch, Brunel UniversityMore details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Cloth
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 39 mm
Weight
957 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8047-2436-4 (9780804724364)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Peter Galison is Mallinckrodt Professor of the History of Science and of Physics at Harvard University. He is the editor, with Bruce Hevly, of Big Science: The Growth of Large-Scale Research.
David J. Stump is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco.
David J. Stump is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco.
Content
Contributors Introduction: the context of disunity Part I. Boundaries: 1. The disunities of the sciences Ian Hacking 2. Styles of reasoning, conceptual history, and the emergence of psychiatry Arnold I. Davidson 3. Metaphysical disorder and scientific disunity John Dupre; 4. Computer simulations and the trading zone Peter Galison 5. The unity of science: carnap. neurath, and beyond Richard Creath 6. Talking metaphysical turkey about epistemological chicken, and the poop on pidgins Steve Fuller Part II. Contexts: 7. From relativism to contingetism Mario Biagioli 8. Contextualizing the canon Simon Schaffer 9. Science made up: constructivist sociology of scientific knowledge Arthur Fine 10. From epistemology and metaphysics to concrete connections David J. Stump 11. The care of the self and blind variation: the disunity of two leading sciences Karim Knorr Cetina 12. The constitution of archaelogical evidence: gender politics and science Alison Wym Part III. Power: 13. Otto neurath: politics and the unity of science Jordi Cat, Nancy Cartwright, and Hasok Chang 14. The naturalized history museum Timothy Lenon and Cheryl Lynn Ross 15. Beyond epistemic sovereignty Joseph Rouse 16. The dilemma of scientific subjectivity in postvital culture Evelyn Fox Keller 17. Modest witness: feminist diffractions in science studies Donna J. Haraway 18. Afterword: new directions in the philosophy of science studies David J. Stump Notes Select bibliography Index.