Higher Superstition
The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science
Published on 28. January 1998
Book
Paperback/Softback
348 pages
978-0-8018-5707-2 (ISBN)
Description
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 paperback edition of Higher Superstition includes a new afterword by the authors.
Reviews / Votes
We should be thankful that Gross and Levitt have provided a wake-up call. Their significant overview of the thinking of those who teach our lawyers, journalists and teachers should be read by all who are concerned by the decline of the status of science in our times. Physics Today At last, somebody has performed the invaluable service of exploding the pretentions of those who think every equation derived this century undermines the fabric of western thought. New Statesman The authors' shredding of such luminaries of postmodernism and feminism as Stanley Aronowitz, Sandra Harding, and Evelyn fox Keller, among others, is not always charitable, [but] it is invariably compelling and frequently devastating. -- Elizabeth Fox-Genovese Washington TimesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
565 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-5707-2 (9780801857072)
DOI
10.56021/9780801847660
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
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/1998
Johns Hopkins University Press
€22.49
Available for download
Book
02/1994
Johns Hopkins University Press
€52.24
Article not available for order
Persons
Paul R. Gross, former director and president of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, is University Professor of Life Sciences, Emeritus, at the University of Virginia and a visiting scholar at Harvard University. Norman Levitt is professor of mathematics at Rutgers University and the author of Grassmannians and Gauss Maps in Piecewise-Linear Topology.
Content
Preface to the 1998 Edition
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. The Academic Left and Science
Chapter 2. Some History and Politics: Natural Science and its Natural Enemies
Chapter 3. The Cultural Construction of Cultural Constructivism
Chapter 4. The Realm of Idle Phrases: Postmodernism, Literary Theory, and Cultural Criticism
Chapter 5. Auspicating Gender
Chapter 6. The Gates of Eden
Chapter 7. The Schools of Indictment
Chapter 8. Why Do the People Imagine a Vain Thing?
Chapter 9. Does it Matter?
Notes
Supplementary Notes to the 1998 Edition
References
Index
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. The Academic Left and Science
Chapter 2. Some History and Politics: Natural Science and its Natural Enemies
Chapter 3. The Cultural Construction of Cultural Constructivism
Chapter 4. The Realm of Idle Phrases: Postmodernism, Literary Theory, and Cultural Criticism
Chapter 5. Auspicating Gender
Chapter 6. The Gates of Eden
Chapter 7. The Schools of Indictment
Chapter 8. Why Do the People Imagine a Vain Thing?
Chapter 9. Does it Matter?
Notes
Supplementary Notes to the 1998 Edition
References
Index