Description
Book SynopsisIs 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 e
Trade Review
“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 University
Table of Contents
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.
