Tamar Szabó Gendler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199589760
- eISBN:
- 9780191595486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589760.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, Philosophy of Science
This chapter argues that thought experiments play a distinctive role in scientific inquiry. Reasoning about particular entities within the context of an imaginary scenario can lead to rationally ...
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This chapter argues that thought experiments play a distinctive role in scientific inquiry. Reasoning about particular entities within the context of an imaginary scenario can lead to rationally justified conclusions that—given the same initial information—would not be rationally justifiable on the basis of a straightforward argument. The bulk of the essay involves a careful reconstruction of one of the most famous thought experiments in the history of science—that by which Galileo is said to have refuted the Aristotelian theory that heavy bodies fall faster than lighter ones. But it also offers some more general remarks about scientific thought experiment as such, including a comparison of the author's views with those of James Robert Brown and John Norton.Less
This chapter argues that thought experiments play a distinctive role in scientific inquiry. Reasoning about particular entities within the context of an imaginary scenario can lead to rationally justified conclusions that—given the same initial information—would not be rationally justifiable on the basis of a straightforward argument. The bulk of the essay involves a careful reconstruction of one of the most famous thought experiments in the history of science—that by which Galileo is said to have refuted the Aristotelian theory that heavy bodies fall faster than lighter ones. But it also offers some more general remarks about scientific thought experiment as such, including a comparison of the author's views with those of James Robert Brown and John Norton.
Jonathan I. Israel
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206088
- eISBN:
- 9780191676970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206088.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas, European Modern History
The most important and exceptional element in Spinoza's scientific thought is simply that natural philosophy, or science, is of universal applicability and that there is no reserved area beyond it. ...
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The most important and exceptional element in Spinoza's scientific thought is simply that natural philosophy, or science, is of universal applicability and that there is no reserved area beyond it. This implied a stark contrast between Spinoza's scientific rationality and that of every other leading philosopher and scientist of the age, not least Descartes. Various contemporaries attested to Spinoza's skill in preparing lenses and building microscopes and telescopes. Among those most aware of Spinoza's work with microscopes was the preeminent scientist of the Dutch Golden Age, Christian Huygens. Below the surface, the barely suppressed rivalry between Huygens and Spinoza extended far beyond lenses and microscopes. For both men, the central issue in science at the time was to revise and refine Descartes' laws of motion and mechanics. Another central strand of Spinoza's scientific thought is his critique of Boyle. Spinoza relegated observation and experiment to the secondary role of confirming or contradicting hypotheses, and it was on this ground that he was drawn into criticizing Boyle and the empiricism of the Royal Society.Less
The most important and exceptional element in Spinoza's scientific thought is simply that natural philosophy, or science, is of universal applicability and that there is no reserved area beyond it. This implied a stark contrast between Spinoza's scientific rationality and that of every other leading philosopher and scientist of the age, not least Descartes. Various contemporaries attested to Spinoza's skill in preparing lenses and building microscopes and telescopes. Among those most aware of Spinoza's work with microscopes was the preeminent scientist of the Dutch Golden Age, Christian Huygens. Below the surface, the barely suppressed rivalry between Huygens and Spinoza extended far beyond lenses and microscopes. For both men, the central issue in science at the time was to revise and refine Descartes' laws of motion and mechanics. Another central strand of Spinoza's scientific thought is his critique of Boyle. Spinoza relegated observation and experiment to the secondary role of confirming or contradicting hypotheses, and it was on this ground that he was drawn into criticizing Boyle and the empiricism of the Royal Society.
Amos Funkenstein
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691181356
- eISBN:
- 9780691184265
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691181356.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book is a pioneering work of intellectual history that transformed our understanding of the relationship between Christian theology and the development of science. The author explores the ...
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This book is a pioneering work of intellectual history that transformed our understanding of the relationship between Christian theology and the development of science. The author explores the metaphysical foundations of modern science and shows how, by the 1600s, theological and scientific thinking had become almost one. Major figures like Descartes, Leibniz, Newton, and others developed an unprecedented secular theology whose debt to medieval and scholastic thought shaped the trajectory of the scientific revolution. The book ends with the author's influential analysis of the seventeenth century's “unprecedented fusion” of scientific and religious language. Featuring a new foreword, the book is a pathbreaking and classic work that remains a fundamental resource for historians and philosophers of science.Less
This book is a pioneering work of intellectual history that transformed our understanding of the relationship between Christian theology and the development of science. The author explores the metaphysical foundations of modern science and shows how, by the 1600s, theological and scientific thinking had become almost one. Major figures like Descartes, Leibniz, Newton, and others developed an unprecedented secular theology whose debt to medieval and scholastic thought shaped the trajectory of the scientific revolution. The book ends with the author's influential analysis of the seventeenth century's “unprecedented fusion” of scientific and religious language. Featuring a new foreword, the book is a pathbreaking and classic work that remains a fundamental resource for historians and philosophers of science.
Michael E. Gorman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199753628
- eISBN:
- 9780199950027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753628.003.0003
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter provides a taxonomy of the methodological approaches psychologists have taken to studying scientific and technological thinking, based on an analogy to biological methods, including in ...
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This chapter provides a taxonomy of the methodological approaches psychologists have taken to studying scientific and technological thinking, based on an analogy to biological methods, including in vitro studies of nonscientists working on simulations of science and in vivo studies of scientists working in their laboratories. Tacit knowledge is incorporated into the taxonomy. Scholars in science and technology studies have discovered a new category of expertise which they refer to as interactional, or the ability to talk like a member of a particular scientific community without being able to do the research. Interactional expertise is a topic that should be explored by psychologists of science; the chapter describes how. The chapter ends by considering what it would take to make psychology of science into a field, and whether that is desirable.Less
This chapter provides a taxonomy of the methodological approaches psychologists have taken to studying scientific and technological thinking, based on an analogy to biological methods, including in vitro studies of nonscientists working on simulations of science and in vivo studies of scientists working in their laboratories. Tacit knowledge is incorporated into the taxonomy. Scholars in science and technology studies have discovered a new category of expertise which they refer to as interactional, or the ability to talk like a member of a particular scientific community without being able to do the research. Interactional expertise is a topic that should be explored by psychologists of science; the chapter describes how. The chapter ends by considering what it would take to make psychology of science into a field, and whether that is desirable.
Tamar Szabó Gendler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199589760
- eISBN:
- 9780191595486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589760.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, Philosophy of Science
This chapter explores the question of how contemplation of an imaginary scenario can lead to new knowledge about contingent features of the natural world—that is, how it can provide us with relevant ...
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This chapter explores the question of how contemplation of an imaginary scenario can lead to new knowledge about contingent features of the natural world—that is, how it can provide us with relevant beliefs about contingent matters that are simultaneously new and justified. It traces the source of both novelty and justification to the ways in which focusing one's attention on a specific scenario (as opposed to a general schema) may evoke quasi‐sensory intuitions which then serve as a basei for novel justified true beliefs. Drawing on work on mental imagery by Roger Shepard, Daniel Reisberg, and others, the chapter presents empirical psychological evidence that supports its main thesis; it also includes a comparison of the author's views with those of James Robert Brown and John Norton.Less
This chapter explores the question of how contemplation of an imaginary scenario can lead to new knowledge about contingent features of the natural world—that is, how it can provide us with relevant beliefs about contingent matters that are simultaneously new and justified. It traces the source of both novelty and justification to the ways in which focusing one's attention on a specific scenario (as opposed to a general schema) may evoke quasi‐sensory intuitions which then serve as a basei for novel justified true beliefs. Drawing on work on mental imagery by Roger Shepard, Daniel Reisberg, and others, the chapter presents empirical psychological evidence that supports its main thesis; it also includes a comparison of the author's views with those of James Robert Brown and John Norton.
Michael Horace Barnes
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195396270
- eISBN:
- 9780199852482
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396270.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book examines a pattern of cognitive development that has evolved over thousands of years—a pattern manifest in both science and religion. It describes how the major world cultures built upon ...
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This book examines a pattern of cognitive development that has evolved over thousands of years—a pattern manifest in both science and religion. It describes how the major world cultures built upon our natural human language skills to add literacy, logic, and, now, a highly critical self-awareness. In tracing the histories of both scientific and religious thought, the book shows why we think the way that we do today. Although religious and scientific modes of thought are often portrayed as contradictory—one is highly rational while the other appeals to tradition and faith—the book argues that they evolved together and are actually complementary. Using the developmental thought of Piaget, it argues that cultures develop like individuals in that both learn easier cognitive skills first and master the harder ones later. This is especially true, the book states, because the harder ones often require first the creation of cognitive technology like writing or formal logic as well as the creation of social institutions that teach and sustain those skills. The book goes on to delineate the successive stages of the co-evolution of religious and scientific thought in the West, from the preliterate cultures of antiquity up to the present time. Along the way, it covers topics such as the impact of literacy on human modes of thought; the development of formalized logic and philosophical reflections; the emergence of an explicitly rational science; the birth of formal theologies; and, more recently, the growth of modern empirical science.Less
This book examines a pattern of cognitive development that has evolved over thousands of years—a pattern manifest in both science and religion. It describes how the major world cultures built upon our natural human language skills to add literacy, logic, and, now, a highly critical self-awareness. In tracing the histories of both scientific and religious thought, the book shows why we think the way that we do today. Although religious and scientific modes of thought are often portrayed as contradictory—one is highly rational while the other appeals to tradition and faith—the book argues that they evolved together and are actually complementary. Using the developmental thought of Piaget, it argues that cultures develop like individuals in that both learn easier cognitive skills first and master the harder ones later. This is especially true, the book states, because the harder ones often require first the creation of cognitive technology like writing or formal logic as well as the creation of social institutions that teach and sustain those skills. The book goes on to delineate the successive stages of the co-evolution of religious and scientific thought in the West, from the preliterate cultures of antiquity up to the present time. Along the way, it covers topics such as the impact of literacy on human modes of thought; the development of formalized logic and philosophical reflections; the emergence of an explicitly rational science; the birth of formal theologies; and, more recently, the growth of modern empirical science.
Roy A. Sorensen
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195129137
- eISBN:
- 9780199786138
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019512913X.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter illustrates the power of thought experiments by assembling influential thought experiments from the history of science. It lays out the book's plan to understand philosophical thought ...
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This chapter illustrates the power of thought experiments by assembling influential thought experiments from the history of science. It lays out the book's plan to understand philosophical thought experiments by concentrating on their resemblance to scientific relatives. Points of difference between philosophical and scientific thought experiments give a preview of obstacles that must be overcome in the course of the campaign. Naive and sophisticated reservations about the philosophical cases are registered for the same purpose.Less
This chapter illustrates the power of thought experiments by assembling influential thought experiments from the history of science. It lays out the book's plan to understand philosophical thought experiments by concentrating on their resemblance to scientific relatives. Points of difference between philosophical and scientific thought experiments give a preview of obstacles that must be overcome in the course of the campaign. Naive and sophisticated reservations about the philosophical cases are registered for the same purpose.
William A. Silverman
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780192630889
- eISBN:
- 9780191723568
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192630889.003.0008
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
This chapter presents a 1989 commentary on scientific thought. It reviews Sir Peter Medawar's philosophic arguments about scientific thought. It says that in medicine, there is a need to maintain a ...
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This chapter presents a 1989 commentary on scientific thought. It reviews Sir Peter Medawar's philosophic arguments about scientific thought. It says that in medicine, there is a need to maintain a delicate balance between demolition and construction.Less
This chapter presents a 1989 commentary on scientific thought. It reviews Sir Peter Medawar's philosophic arguments about scientific thought. It says that in medicine, there is a need to maintain a delicate balance between demolition and construction.
Ian Duncan
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691175072
- eISBN:
- 9780691194189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691175072.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This concluding chapter focuses on George Eliot's Middlemarch. The main business of Middlemarch, formulated as the premise of its opening rhetorical question, is with a scientific project, “the ...
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This concluding chapter focuses on George Eliot's Middlemarch. The main business of Middlemarch, formulated as the premise of its opening rhetorical question, is with a scientific project, “the history of man.” While George Eliot's literary career coincided with Charles Darwin's, she did not immediately digest his theory; her fiction activates other developmental forces besides natural selection, and deranges the scientific thought it brings into play. In doing so, it churns up the not-yet-settled, volatile currents of that scientific thought-including Darwin's, who was not always (himself) a pure Darwinist. With that, it deranges its own aesthetic protocols, so often read as an Olympian consummation of Victorian realism. “To a degree that the catchall term 'realism' obscures,” writes Lauren Goodlad, “Eliot's oeuvre is generically diverse, bold, and experimental.” The chapter seeks to recapture the unsettling force of that experimentalism: to make George Eliot strange again.Less
This concluding chapter focuses on George Eliot's Middlemarch. The main business of Middlemarch, formulated as the premise of its opening rhetorical question, is with a scientific project, “the history of man.” While George Eliot's literary career coincided with Charles Darwin's, she did not immediately digest his theory; her fiction activates other developmental forces besides natural selection, and deranges the scientific thought it brings into play. In doing so, it churns up the not-yet-settled, volatile currents of that scientific thought-including Darwin's, who was not always (himself) a pure Darwinist. With that, it deranges its own aesthetic protocols, so often read as an Olympian consummation of Victorian realism. “To a degree that the catchall term 'realism' obscures,” writes Lauren Goodlad, “Eliot's oeuvre is generically diverse, bold, and experimental.” The chapter seeks to recapture the unsettling force of that experimentalism: to make George Eliot strange again.
Eugene Subbotsky
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195393873
- eISBN:
- 9780199776979
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393873.003.0003
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
In Chapter 3 (“Verbal Magical Beliefs and Children's Everyday Experience”), the problem of entrenchment of magical beliefs in children of various ages is examined. The development of magical beliefs ...
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In Chapter 3 (“Verbal Magical Beliefs and Children's Everyday Experience”), the problem of entrenchment of magical beliefs in children of various ages is examined. The development of magical beliefs in children is put in the context of a more general model of people's reaction to anomalous events, both in the sciences (Kuhn, Lacatos) and in school education (Chinn & Brewer). This allowed one to consider the transition from magical to scientific thinking in children as an instance of a “revolution” in children's causal thinking about the world. Experiments are presented that examine when and how this fundamental transition from magical to scientific thinking occurs, and whether this transition is a complete replacement of one kind of causal orientation with the alternative kind or is domain specific and covers only knowledge about the physical world, whereas in other areas (such as fantasy, play, or human relations) magic thinking persists to older ages. In contrast to most previous studies, in these experiments, special care was taken to ensure that children understood the difference between “true magic” and “fake magic” (i.e., magic tricks).Less
In Chapter 3 (“Verbal Magical Beliefs and Children's Everyday Experience”), the problem of entrenchment of magical beliefs in children of various ages is examined. The development of magical beliefs in children is put in the context of a more general model of people's reaction to anomalous events, both in the sciences (Kuhn, Lacatos) and in school education (Chinn & Brewer). This allowed one to consider the transition from magical to scientific thinking in children as an instance of a “revolution” in children's causal thinking about the world. Experiments are presented that examine when and how this fundamental transition from magical to scientific thinking occurs, and whether this transition is a complete replacement of one kind of causal orientation with the alternative kind or is domain specific and covers only knowledge about the physical world, whereas in other areas (such as fantasy, play, or human relations) magic thinking persists to older ages. In contrast to most previous studies, in these experiments, special care was taken to ensure that children understood the difference between “true magic” and “fake magic” (i.e., magic tricks).
Jamie Cohen-Cole
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226092164
- eISBN:
- 9780226092331
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226092331.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter focuses on a particular moment in the history of human sciences in which reflexivity played a significant role: the early days of revolution when cognitive science supplanted behaviorism ...
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This chapter focuses on a particular moment in the history of human sciences in which reflexivity played a significant role: the early days of revolution when cognitive science supplanted behaviorism as the hegemonic science of human nature. In the struggle that marked the cognitive revolution. Reflexivity provided the combatants with weapons to attack their foes and also methods and concepts to form their respective sciences of human nature. To enhance their public standing, cognitive scientists sought to make their own thought processes match folk ideas of scientific thinking. They applied the same categories of selfhood found in popular culture and social psychology to themselves. They collapsed distinction between normative rules for scientific thinking and the actual processes of human thinking. As cognitive scientists crossed back and forth between scientific descriptions of the human and normative discussions of the best way for scientists to think, they borrowed from the folk and social psychological image of right-thinking to inform their own personal and public images. These very same scientific self-images would form the basis for the image of human nature that cognitive science produced.Less
This chapter focuses on a particular moment in the history of human sciences in which reflexivity played a significant role: the early days of revolution when cognitive science supplanted behaviorism as the hegemonic science of human nature. In the struggle that marked the cognitive revolution. Reflexivity provided the combatants with weapons to attack their foes and also methods and concepts to form their respective sciences of human nature. To enhance their public standing, cognitive scientists sought to make their own thought processes match folk ideas of scientific thinking. They applied the same categories of selfhood found in popular culture and social psychology to themselves. They collapsed distinction between normative rules for scientific thinking and the actual processes of human thinking. As cognitive scientists crossed back and forth between scientific descriptions of the human and normative discussions of the best way for scientists to think, they borrowed from the folk and social psychological image of right-thinking to inform their own personal and public images. These very same scientific self-images would form the basis for the image of human nature that cognitive science produced.
C. U. M. Smith, Eugenio Frixione, Stanley Finger, and William Clower
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199766499
- eISBN:
- 9780199950263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199766499.003.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience
This chapter studies the ancient Greeks' understanding of the soul and body, as well as the relationship between the two. It discusses a set of basic notions, including movement and keeping the body ...
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This chapter studies the ancient Greeks' understanding of the soul and body, as well as the relationship between the two. It discusses a set of basic notions, including movement and keeping the body together against disintegration, and the heart. It studies the start of scientific thought, from the pre-Socratic philosophers until the height of classic Greek philosophy. It focuses on the works of Plato and Aristotle and outlines the development of early Greek conceptions about the soul and body. It then examines how these notions influenced the birth of scientific medicine. This chapter concludes with a review of the teachings on the soul and body by some representatives of Epicureanism and Stoicism, which are two opposing philosophical-scientific schools that prospered from the post-Aristotelian period until the rise of the Roman Empire.Less
This chapter studies the ancient Greeks' understanding of the soul and body, as well as the relationship between the two. It discusses a set of basic notions, including movement and keeping the body together against disintegration, and the heart. It studies the start of scientific thought, from the pre-Socratic philosophers until the height of classic Greek philosophy. It focuses on the works of Plato and Aristotle and outlines the development of early Greek conceptions about the soul and body. It then examines how these notions influenced the birth of scientific medicine. This chapter concludes with a review of the teachings on the soul and body by some representatives of Epicureanism and Stoicism, which are two opposing philosophical-scientific schools that prospered from the post-Aristotelian period until the rise of the Roman Empire.
Emilio J. C. Lobato and Corinne Zimmerman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262037426
- eISBN:
- 9780262344814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262037426.003.0002
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
We review findings from the psychology of science that are relevant to understanding or explaining peoples’ tendencies to believe both scientific and pseudoscientific claims. We discuss relevant ...
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We review findings from the psychology of science that are relevant to understanding or explaining peoples’ tendencies to believe both scientific and pseudoscientific claims. We discuss relevant theoretical frameworks and empirical findings to support the proposal that pseudoscientific beliefs arise in much the same way as other scientific and non-scientific beliefs do. In particular, we focus on (a) cognitive and metacognitive factors at the individual level; (b) trust in testimony and judgments of expertise at the social level; and (c) personal identity and the public’s relationship with the scientific community at a cultural level.Less
We review findings from the psychology of science that are relevant to understanding or explaining peoples’ tendencies to believe both scientific and pseudoscientific claims. We discuss relevant theoretical frameworks and empirical findings to support the proposal that pseudoscientific beliefs arise in much the same way as other scientific and non-scientific beliefs do. In particular, we focus on (a) cognitive and metacognitive factors at the individual level; (b) trust in testimony and judgments of expertise at the social level; and (c) personal identity and the public’s relationship with the scientific community at a cultural level.
Peter Gaffney
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665976
- eISBN:
- 9781452946382
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665976.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This introductory chapter sets out the theoretical underpinnings of the present volume. It draws on the analyses of Deleuze and Guattari to address the question of whether scientific thought, like ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the theoretical underpinnings of the present volume. It draws on the analyses of Deleuze and Guattari to address the question of whether scientific thought, like philosophical thought, takes place in the gap between worlds and sustains the force of the virtual. It considers a polemic that has emerged from discussions regarding Deleuze’s “scienticity”; and discusses ontological versus epistemological realism, how science lacks the metaphysics it needs, nature as creative process, and the processes of subjectivation. The book aims to examine the possibilities of a science that engages (or is engaged by) the force of the virtual, and how this influences our understanding of Deleuze’s process-oriented ontology. The question is not only whether science withstands, confirms, or refutes the role that Deleuze attributes to it, but how this challenges contemporary literary and social criticism to “play by new rules”.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the theoretical underpinnings of the present volume. It draws on the analyses of Deleuze and Guattari to address the question of whether scientific thought, like philosophical thought, takes place in the gap between worlds and sustains the force of the virtual. It considers a polemic that has emerged from discussions regarding Deleuze’s “scienticity”; and discusses ontological versus epistemological realism, how science lacks the metaphysics it needs, nature as creative process, and the processes of subjectivation. The book aims to examine the possibilities of a science that engages (or is engaged by) the force of the virtual, and how this influences our understanding of Deleuze’s process-oriented ontology. The question is not only whether science withstands, confirms, or refutes the role that Deleuze attributes to it, but how this challenges contemporary literary and social criticism to “play by new rules”.
Noelle Molé Liston
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501750786
- eISBN:
- 9781501750816
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501750786.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter establishes television and print media as foundational to Silvio Berlusconi's antiestablishment politics to its many aftermaths. It explains that the immediate aftermath is about how ...
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This chapter establishes television and print media as foundational to Silvio Berlusconi's antiestablishment politics to its many aftermaths. It explains that the immediate aftermath is about how science became seen as worth saving and a rallying cry to mobilize to the streets. It also recounts the rise of Beppe Grillo and the Five Star Movement as a consequential outcome that forms a new kind of digital populism through the Internet and algorithmic processes. The chapter examines why Italy was one of the first countries to attempt to hold disinformation and “fake news” legally accountable, and how social actors hyperinvest in scientific thinking. It refers to how the current hegemonic form of knowledge and customized Internet influence forms of governance and politics.Less
This chapter establishes television and print media as foundational to Silvio Berlusconi's antiestablishment politics to its many aftermaths. It explains that the immediate aftermath is about how science became seen as worth saving and a rallying cry to mobilize to the streets. It also recounts the rise of Beppe Grillo and the Five Star Movement as a consequential outcome that forms a new kind of digital populism through the Internet and algorithmic processes. The chapter examines why Italy was one of the first countries to attempt to hold disinformation and “fake news” legally accountable, and how social actors hyperinvest in scientific thinking. It refers to how the current hegemonic form of knowledge and customized Internet influence forms of governance and politics.
Allison B. Kaufman and James C. Kaufman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262037426
- eISBN:
- 9780262344814
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262037426.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
In a post-truth, fake news world, we are particularly susceptible to the claims of pseudoscience. When emotions and opinions are more widely disseminated than scientific findings, and self-proclaimed ...
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In a post-truth, fake news world, we are particularly susceptible to the claims of pseudoscience. When emotions and opinions are more widely disseminated than scientific findings, and self-proclaimed experts get their expertise from Google, how can the average person distinguish real science from fake? This book examines pseudoscience from a variety of perspectives, through case studies, analysis, and personal accounts that show how to recognize pseudoscience, why it is so widely accepted, and how to advocate for real science. Contributors examine the basics of pseudoscience, including issues of cognitive bias; the costs of pseudoscience, with accounts of naturopathy and logical fallacies in the anti-vaccination movement; perceptions of scientific soundness; the mainstream presence of “integrative medicine,” hypnosis, and parapsychology; and the use of case studies and new media in science advocacy.Less
In a post-truth, fake news world, we are particularly susceptible to the claims of pseudoscience. When emotions and opinions are more widely disseminated than scientific findings, and self-proclaimed experts get their expertise from Google, how can the average person distinguish real science from fake? This book examines pseudoscience from a variety of perspectives, through case studies, analysis, and personal accounts that show how to recognize pseudoscience, why it is so widely accepted, and how to advocate for real science. Contributors examine the basics of pseudoscience, including issues of cognitive bias; the costs of pseudoscience, with accounts of naturopathy and logical fallacies in the anti-vaccination movement; perceptions of scientific soundness; the mainstream presence of “integrative medicine,” hypnosis, and parapsychology; and the use of case studies and new media in science advocacy.
Sara E. Gorman and Jack M. Gorman
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197547458
- eISBN:
- 9780197547489
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197547458.003.0006
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
This chapter describes another reason people succumb to unscientific notions—the discomfort people have with complexity. It is not that people are incapable of learning the facts but rather they are ...
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This chapter describes another reason people succumb to unscientific notions—the discomfort people have with complexity. It is not that people are incapable of learning the facts but rather they are reluctant to put in the time and effort to do so. This retreat from complexity is similar to the other reasons for science denial in that it is in many ways a useful and adaptive stance. But when making health decisions, the inability to tackle scientific details can leave one prone to accepting craftily packaged inaccuracies and slogans. Scientists, doctors, and public health experts are often not helpful in this regard because they frequently refuse to explain things clearly and interestingly. The chapter then argues that scientists need to work much harder on figuring out the best ways to communicate facts to non-scientists. It proposes some possible methods to make scientific thinking more intuitive. By focusing on the scientific method, one can begin to educate people about how to accept complexity and uncertainty, how to be skeptical, and how to ask the right questions.Less
This chapter describes another reason people succumb to unscientific notions—the discomfort people have with complexity. It is not that people are incapable of learning the facts but rather they are reluctant to put in the time and effort to do so. This retreat from complexity is similar to the other reasons for science denial in that it is in many ways a useful and adaptive stance. But when making health decisions, the inability to tackle scientific details can leave one prone to accepting craftily packaged inaccuracies and slogans. Scientists, doctors, and public health experts are often not helpful in this regard because they frequently refuse to explain things clearly and interestingly. The chapter then argues that scientists need to work much harder on figuring out the best ways to communicate facts to non-scientists. It proposes some possible methods to make scientific thinking more intuitive. By focusing on the scientific method, one can begin to educate people about how to accept complexity and uncertainty, how to be skeptical, and how to ask the right questions.
Born Georgina
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520202160
- eISBN:
- 9780520916845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520202160.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter illustrates how the concert programming of the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) embodied an extremely coherent and forceful canonization of ...
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This chapter illustrates how the concert programming of the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) embodied an extremely coherent and forceful canonization of twentieth-century high-musical modernism. It explains that IRCAM's resources were channeled into three powerful and legitimizing displacements. These include the interpretation of the musical past, the development of technology and pure science around music, and the assertion of a realm of utopian and scientific thought and theory closely linked to composition.Less
This chapter illustrates how the concert programming of the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) embodied an extremely coherent and forceful canonization of twentieth-century high-musical modernism. It explains that IRCAM's resources were channeled into three powerful and legitimizing displacements. These include the interpretation of the musical past, the development of technology and pure science around music, and the assertion of a realm of utopian and scientific thought and theory closely linked to composition.
Michael Yudell
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231156974
- eISBN:
- 9780231527699
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231156974.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter describes the role played by scientific thought, from the late eighteenth century through to the twentieth century, in developing a language to measure the meaning of human difference in ...
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This chapter describes the role played by scientific thought, from the late eighteenth century through to the twentieth century, in developing a language to measure the meaning of human difference in the form of race. It explores how many scientists came to reject this concept in the twentieth century. The concept of race traces its roots from the consideration of the nature of human difference. Ancient civilizations such as Greece and Rome divided people between the civic and the barbarous, and between the political citizen and those “outside.” It was only towards the end of the Middle Ages that the idea of categorization based on human variations in blood or in kinship was accepted. The twentieth century saw another dimension of race as the studies of human genetics began to flourish. The chapter concludes with a brief examination of the current state of racial thinking in biology.Less
This chapter describes the role played by scientific thought, from the late eighteenth century through to the twentieth century, in developing a language to measure the meaning of human difference in the form of race. It explores how many scientists came to reject this concept in the twentieth century. The concept of race traces its roots from the consideration of the nature of human difference. Ancient civilizations such as Greece and Rome divided people between the civic and the barbarous, and between the political citizen and those “outside.” It was only towards the end of the Middle Ages that the idea of categorization based on human variations in blood or in kinship was accepted. The twentieth century saw another dimension of race as the studies of human genetics began to flourish. The chapter concludes with a brief examination of the current state of racial thinking in biology.
Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231170680
- eISBN:
- 9780231541268
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231170680.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
Mythic thought and scientific thought compared
Mythic thought and scientific thought compared
