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OverviewThroughout the recent culture and science wars, the radically new conceptions of knowledge and science emerging from such fields as the history and sociology of science have been denounced by various journalists, scientists, and academics as irresponsible attacks on science, absurd denials of objective reality, or a cynical abandonment of truth itself. In Scandalous Knowledge, Barbara Herrnstein Smith explores and illuminates the intellectual contexts of these crude denunciations. A preeminent scholar, theorist, and analyst of intellectual history, Smith begins by looking closely at the epistemological developments at issue. She presents a clear, historically informed, and philosophically sophisticated overview of important twentieth-century critiques of traditional-rationalist, realist, positivist-accounts of human knowledge and scientific truth, and discusses in detail the alternative accounts produced by Ludwik Fleck, Thomas Kuhn, Michel Foucault, Bruno Latour, and others. With keen wit, Smith demonstrates that the familiar charges involved in these scandals-including the recurrent invocation of postmodern relativism -protect intellectual orthodoxy by falsely associating important intellectual developments with logically absurd and morally or politically disabling positions. She goes on to offer bold, original, and insightful perspectives on the currently strained relations between the natural sciences and the humanities; on the grandiose but dubious claims of evolutionary psychology to explain human behavior, cognition, and culture; and on contemporary controversies over the psychology, biology, and ethics of animal-human relations. Scandalous Knowledge is a provocative and compelling intervention into controversies that continue to roil through journalism, pulpits, laboratories, and classrooms throughout the United States and Europe. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Barbara Herrnstein SmithPublisher: Duke University Press Imprint: Duke University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.30cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 23.30cm Weight: 0.322kg ISBN: 9780822338482ISBN 10: 0822338483 Pages: 208 Publication Date: 28 February 2006 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Awaiting stock  The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you. Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii 1. Introduction: Scandals of Knowledge 1 2. Pre-Post-Modern Relativism 18 3. Netting Truth: Ludwik Fleck's Constructivist Genealogy 46 4. Cutting-Edge Equivocation: Conceptual Moves and Rhetorical Strategies in Contemporary Anti-Epistemology 85 5. Disciplinary Cultures and Tribal Warfare: The Sciences and the Humanities Today 108 6. Super Natural Science: The Claims of Evolutionary Psychology 130 7. Animal Relatives, Difficult Relations 143 Works Cited 172 Index 186Reviews“Scandalously unimpressed by the charges, countercharges, and prudent middle paths found in current disputes over science and truth, Barbara Herrnstein Smith deploys her ferocious intelligence, wicked wit, and broad understanding to provide us with a tonic mixture of empathy and resources for taking positions that are both informed and responsible. She does not flinch before the barrage of outrages; neither, this book in hand, need we.”—Susan Oyama, author of Evolution’s Eye: A Systems View of the Biology-Culture Divide I take from Scandalous Knowledge its strong argument for the benefits of remaining curious and open-minded to developments both within one's specialized field and across the interdisciplinary board, an argument, which could be made both for individual researchers and for entire disciplines. Smith's own work is an excellent illustration of the conceptual and analytical possibilities engendered by intellectual expansiveness and refuses to be drawn into the provinciality of disciplinary turf wars as well as agendas to make research practically useful (or duly normative) along narrowly conceived lines. A good dose of Scandalous Knowledge is thus strongly to be recommended. . . . --Casper Bruun Jensen, Social Studies of Science As her overall theme, Smith wants to defend constructivist epistemology as the appropriate one for the twenty-first century and, to a slightly lesser extent, the goals of social construction, while deriding as unfounded the attacks against their purported relativism, nihilism, fatuous egalitarianism, and political correctness. Her performance is undeniably impressive. . . . <br>--Harold Fromm, Philosophy and Literature Author InformationBarbara Herrnstein Smith is Braxton Craven Professor of Comparative Literature and English at Duke University and Director of its Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory, and Distinguished Professor of English at Brown University. Among her books are Belief and Resistance: Dynamics of Contemporary Intellectual Controversy and Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory. Smith is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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