Putting Science in Its Place

Putting Science in Its Place PDF Author: David N. Livingstone
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226487245
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
We are accustomed to thinking of science and its findings as universal. After all, one atom of carbon plus two of oxygen yields carbon dioxide in Amazonia as well as in Alaska; a scientist in Bombay can use the same materials and techniques to challenge the work of a scientist in New York; and of course the laws of gravity apply worldwide. Why, then, should the spaces where science is done matter at all? David N. Livingstone here puts that question to the test with his fascinating study of how science bears the marks of its place of production. Putting Science in Its Place establishes the fundamental importance of geography in both the generation and the consumption of scientific knowledge, using historical examples of the many places where science has been practiced. Livingstone first turns his attention to some of the specific sites where science has been made—the laboratory, museum, and botanical garden, to name some of the more conventional locales, but also places like the coffeehouse and cathedral, ship's deck and asylum, even the human body itself. In each case, he reveals just how the space of inquiry has conditioned the investigations carried out there. He then describes how, on a regional scale, provincial cultures have shaped scientific endeavor and how, in turn, scientific practices have been instrumental in forming local identities. Widening his inquiry, Livingstone points gently to the fundamental instability of scientific meaning, based on case studies of how scientific theories have been received in different locales. Putting Science in Its Place powerfully concludes by examining the remarkable mobility of science and the seemingly effortless way it moves around the globe. From the reception of Darwin in the land of the Maori to the giraffe that walked from Marseilles to Paris, Livingstone shows that place does matter, even in the world of science.

Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Science

Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Science PDF Author: David N. Livingstone
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226487296
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 538

Book Description
In Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Science, David N. Livingstone and Charles W. J. Withers gather essays that deftly navigate the spaces of science in this significant period and reveal how each is embedded in wider systems of meaning, authority, and identity. Chapters from a distinguished range of contributors explore the places of creation, the paths of knowledge transmission and reception, and the import of exchange networks at various scales. Studies range from the inspection of the places of London science, which show how different scientific sites operated different moral and epistemic economies, to the scrutiny of the ways in which the museum space of the Smithsonian Institution and the expansive space of the American West produced science and framed geographical understanding. This volume makes clear that the science of this era varied in its constitution and reputation in relation to place and personnel, in its nature by virtue of its different epistemic practices, in its audiences, and in the ways in which it was put to work.

Putting Logic in Its Place

Putting Logic in Its Place PDF Author: David Christensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199263256
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
What role, if any, does formal logic play in characterizing epistemically rational belief? Traditionally, belief is seen in a binary way - either one believes a proposition, or one doesn't. Given this picture, it is attractive to impose certain deductive constraints on rational belief: that one's beliefs be logically consistent, and that one believe the logical consequences of one's beliefs. A less popular picture sees belief as a graded phenomenon. This picture (explored more bydecision-theorists and philosophers of science thatn by mainstream epistemologists) invites the use of probabilistic coherence to constrain rational belief. But this latter project has often involved defining graded beliefs in terms of preferences, which may seem to change the subject away fromepistemic rationality.Putting Logic in its Place explores the relations between these two ways of seeing beliefs. It argues that the binary conception, although it fits nicely with much of our commonsense thought and talk about belief, cannot in the end support the traditional deductive constraints on rational belief. Binary beliefs that obeyed these constraints could not answer to anything like our intuitive notion of epistemic rationality, and would end up having to be divorced from central aspects of ourcognitive, practical, and emotional lives.But this does not mean that logic plays no role in rationality. Probabilistic coherence should be viewed as using standard logic to constrain rational graded belief. This probabilistic constraint helps explain the appeal of the traditional deductive constraints, and even underlies the force of rationally persuasive deductive arguments. Graded belief cannot be defined in terms of preferences. But probabilistic coherence may be defended without positing definitional connections between beliefsand preferences. Like the traditional deductive constraints, coherence is a logical ideal that humans cannot fully attain. Nevertheless, it furnishes a compelling way of understanding a key dimension of epistemic rationality.

Putting Philosophy to Work

Putting Philosophy to Work PDF Author: Susan Haack
Publisher:
ISBN: 1616144939
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Book Description
This engaging and wide-ranging collection of essays is informed and unified by the conviction that philosophy can, and should, engage with real-world issues. Susan Haack's keen analytical skills and well-chosen illustrations illuminate a diverse range of cultural questions; and her direct style and wry sense of humor make complex ideas and subtle distinctions accessible to serious readers whatever their discipline or particular interests. Putting Philosophy to Work will appeal not only to philosophers but also to thoughtful scientists, economists, legal thinkers, historians, literary scholars, and humanists. This new, expanded second edition includes several previously unpublished essays: a devastating critique of Karl Popper's highly (and dangerously) influential philosophy of science; a searching and thought-provoking analysis of scientism; and a groundbreaking paper on "academic ethics in a preposterous environment" that every professor, and would-be professor, should read.

Putting Econometrics in Its Place

Putting Econometrics in Its Place PDF Author: G. M. P. Swann
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781781958636
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
'I consider the book as well suited to provide a broader perspective on methods used in applied economic research. For the applied researcher the book will provide a nice overview on existing methods and some arguments as to which method might be particularly suitable for specific purposes.' - Peter Winker, Jahrbücher f. Nationalökonomie u. Statistik

Escape from the Ivory Tower

Escape from the Ivory Tower PDF Author: Nancy Baron
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1597269654
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Book Description
Most scientists and researchers aren’t prepared to talk to the press or to policymakers—or to deal with backlash. Many researchers have the horror stories to prove it. What’s clear, according to Nancy Baron, is that scientists, journalists and public policymakers come from different cultures. They follow different sets of rules, pursue different goals, and speak their own language. To effectively reach journalists and public officials, scientists need to learn new skills and rules of engagement. No matter what your specialty, the keys to success are clear thinking, knowing what you want to say, understanding your audience, and using everyday language to get your main points across. In this practical and entertaining guide to communicating science, Baron explains how to engage your audience and explain why a particular finding matters. She explores how to ace your interview, promote a paper, enter the political fray, and use new media to connect with your audience. The book includes advice from journalists, decision makers, new media experts, bloggers and some of the thousands of scientists who have participated in her communication workshops. Many of the researchers she has worked with have gone on to become well-known spokespeople for science-related issues. Baron and her protégées describe the risks and rewards of “speaking up,” how to deal with criticism, and the link between communications and leadership. The final chapter, ‘Leading the Way’ offers guidance to scientists who want to become agents of change and make your science matter. Whether you are an absolute beginner or a seasoned veteran looking to hone your skills, Escape From the Ivory Tower can help make your science understood, appreciated and perhaps acted upon.

Putting Health into Place

Putting Health into Place PDF Author: Robin A. Kearns
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815627685
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Book Description
Putting Health into Place draws together original works that collectively argue for a reinvention of medical geography. There is a growing interest worldwide in relationships between human health and the experience of place, an interest driven both by developments in sociocultural theory and observed health concerns. This book is a resource for those wishing to explore or to teach beyond the frontiers of conventional medical geography. As the first word of the book's title suggests, this is an active volume, one that contributes to situating health in the simultaneously tangible, negotiated, and experienced realities of place. Robin A. Kearns and Wilbert M. Gesler argue that medical issues are a necessary but insufficient focus in developing geographies of health and healing. This contention is supported by the authors of the thirteen substantive chapters who convey research findings from the Americas, Britain, and the Pacific. This book represents a collective commitment to exploring links between social and cultural theory, ideas about place, and discourses on health that will be of interest to readers across the social and health sciences.

World City

World City PDF Author: Doreen Massey
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745654827
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
Cities around the world are striving to be 'global'. This book tells the story of one of them, and in so doing raises questions of identity, place and political responsibility that are essential for all cities. World City focuses its account on London, one of the greatest of these global cities. London is a city of delight and of creativity. It also presides over a country increasingly divided between North and South and over a neo-liberal form of globalisation - the deregulation, financialisation and commercialisation of all aspects of life - that is resulting in an evermore unequal world. World City explores how we can understand this complex narrative and asks a question that should be asked of any city: what does this place stand for? Following the implosion within the financial sector, such issues are even more vital. In a new Preface, Doreen Massey addresses these changed times. She argues that, whatever happens, the evidence of this book is that we must not go back to 'business as usual', and she asks whether the financial crisis might open up a space for a deeper rethinking of both our economy and our society.

Putting Work in Its Place

Putting Work in Its Place PDF Author: Peter Meiksins
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801438585
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
Using interviews with technical professionals from a wide range of employment settings, examines the difficult path traversed by people who choose to work less than the standard, forty-hour week and refutes the popular myth of the customized work schedule as a return to traditionalism among women. Shows that most of these workers, male and female, young and old remain strongly committed to their jobs, but wish to combine work with other activities they value just as highly. Argues that these professionals are challenging the accepted view of time requirements for careers in organizations and they are also helping to shape a new agenda for the future of the workplace: to transform their individual successes into a normal practice of customized work time.

How to Build a Habitable Planet

How to Build a Habitable Planet PDF Author: Charles H. Langmuir
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400841976
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 737

Book Description
A classic introduction to the story of Earth's origin and evolution—revised and expanded for the twenty-first century Since its first publication more than twenty-five years ago, How to Build a Habitable Planet has established a legendary reputation as an accessible yet scientifically impeccable introduction to the origin and evolution of Earth, from the Big Bang through the rise of human civilization. This classic account of how our habitable planet was assembled from the stuff of stars introduced readers to planetary, Earth, and climate science by way of a fascinating narrative. Now this great book has been made even better. Harvard geochemist Charles Langmuir has worked closely with the original author, Wally Broecker, one of the world's leading Earth scientists, to revise and expand the book for a new generation of readers for whom active planetary stewardship is becoming imperative. Interweaving physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and biology, this sweeping account tells Earth’s complete story, from the synthesis of chemical elements in stars, to the formation of the Solar System, to the evolution of a habitable climate on Earth, to the origin of life and humankind. The book also addresses the search for other habitable worlds in the Milky Way and contemplates whether Earth will remain habitable as our influence on global climate grows. It concludes by considering the ways in which humankind can sustain Earth’s habitability and perhaps even participate in further planetary evolution. Like no other book, How to Build a Habitable Planet provides an understanding of Earth in its broadest context, as well as a greater appreciation of its possibly rare ability to sustain life over geologic time. Leading schools that have ordered, recommended for reading, or adopted this book for course use: Arizona State University Brooklyn College CUNY Columbia University Cornell University ETH Zurich Georgia Institute of Technology Harvard University Johns Hopkins University Luther College Northwestern University Ohio State University Oxford Brookes University Pan American University Rutgers University State University of New York at Binghamton Texas A&M University Trinity College Dublin University of Bristol University of California-Los Angeles University of Cambridge University Of Chicago University of Colorado at Boulder University of Glasgow University of Leicester University of Maine, Farmington University of Michigan University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of North Georgia University of Nottingham University of Oregon University of Oxford University of Portsmouth University of Southampton University of Ulster University of Victoria University of Wyoming Western Kentucky University Yale University
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