Drawing Out Leviathan: Dinosaurs and the Science Wars - Couverture rigide

Livre 1 sur 41: Life of the Past

Parsons, Keith M.

 
9780253339379: Drawing Out Leviathan: Dinosaurs and the Science Wars
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0253339375 ISBN 13 : 9780253339379
Editeur : Indiana University Press, 2001

Synopsis

" . . . are dinosaurs social constructs? Do we really know anything about dinosaurs? Might not all of our beliefs about dinosaurs merely be figments of the paleontological imagination? A few years ago such questions would have seemed preposterous, even nonsensical. Now they must have a serious answer."

At stake in the "Science Wars" that have raged in academe and in the media is nothing less than the standing of science in our culture. One side argues that science is a "social construct," that it does not discover facts about the world, but rather constructs artifacts disguised as objective truths. This view threatens the authority of science and rejects science's claims to objectivity, rationality, and disinterested inquiry. Drawing Out Leviathan examines this argument in the light of some major debates about dinosaurs: the case of the wrong-headed dinosaur, the dinosaur "heresies" of the 1970s, and the debate over the extinction of dinosaurs.

Keith Parsons claims that these debates, though lively and sometimes rancorous, show that evidence and logic, not arbitrary "rules of the game," remained vitally important, even when the debates were at their nastiest. They show science to be a complex set of activities, pervaded by social influences, and not easily reducible to any stereotype. Parsons acknowledges that there are lessons to be learned by scientists from their would-be adversaries, and the book concludes with some recommendations for ending the Science Wars.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l?auteur

KEITH M. PARSONS is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston, Clear Lake and author of God and the Burden of Proof. He is editor of Philo, Journal of the Society of Humanist Philosophers.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Indiana University Press
Date d'édition
2001
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0253339375
ISBN 13 
9780253339379
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
240
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible