This debate is still going on--the book looks interesting, albeit disagreeable.
Frances
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 08:18:15 +0100 From: Human Nature <admin at HUMAN-NATURE.COM> Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture
<SCIENCE-AS-CULTURE at MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> To: SCIENCE-AS-CULTURE at MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU Subject: A House Built on Sand
A major new contribution to the science studies debate:
"A House Built on Sand : Exposing Postmodernist Myths About Science" by Noretta Koertge (Editor) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195117255/darwinanddarwini/
Many at work in the field of cultural studies argue that "science is politics by other means," insisting that scientific inquiry is profoundly shaped by ideological concerns. They base their claims on historical case studies purporting to show the systematic intrusion of sexist, racist, capitalist, colonialist, and/or professional interests into the very content of science. Not long ago physicist Alan Sokal poked fun at these claims by foisting a sly parody on the unwitting editors of the cultural studies journal Social Text, touching off a remarkable torrent of editorials, articles, and heated classroom and Internet discussion. A House Built on Sand picks up where Sokal left off. In a joint effort between scholars from the "two cultures" of science and the humanities, this volume offers devastating criticism of case studies intended to demonstrate that scientific results tell us more about social context than they do about the natural world. The volume concludes by detailing the negative effects of cultural studies myths on education, science journalism, and public policy. Technology scholar Meera Nanda traces the reactionary impact of postcolonial theory on the politics of development in India. Noretta Koertge, a philosopher of science and the volume's editor, reveals how efforts to improve science literacy in the United States are being subverted by uncritical acceptance of postmodernist accounts of science.
CONTENTS
What the Social Text Affair Does and Does Not Prove Alan D. Sokal
What the Sokal Hoax Ought to Teach Us Paul A. Boghossian
A Plea for Science Studies Philip Kitcher
Bashful Eggs, Macho Sperm, and Tonypandy Paul R. Gross
An Engineer Dissects Two Case Studies: Hayle on Fluid Mechanics, and MacKenzie on Statistics Philip A. Sullivan
Evidence-Free Forensics and Enemies of Objectivity Paul R. Gross
Is Darwinism Sexist? (And if It Is, So What?) Michael Ruse
When Experiments Fail: Is "Cold Fusion" Science as Normal? William J. McKinney
Avoiding the Experimenters' Regress Allan Franklin
Do Mutants Die of Natural Causes? The Case of Atomic Parity Violation Allan Franklin
Latour's Relativity John Ruth
In Defense of Bacon Alan Soble
Alchemy, Domination, and Gender William R. Newman
What's Wrong with the Strong Programme's Case Study of the "Hobbes-Boyle" Dispute? Cassandra L. Pinnick
Reflections on Bruno Latour's Version of the Seventeenth Century Margaret C. Jacob
Postmodernisms and the Problem of Scientific Literacy Noretta Koertge
The End of Science, the Central Dogma of Science Studies, Monsieur Jordain, and UncleVanya Norman Levitt
The Epistemic Charity of the Social Constructivist Critics of Science and Why the Third World Should Refuse the Offer Meera Nanda
"A House Built on Sand : Exposing Postmodernist Myths About Science" by Noretta Koertge (Editor) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195117255/darwinanddarwini/
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