Readers who followed the previous diary(here) will have noticed that, as human understanding and the related capacities to evaluate data and categorize nature have grown, other social and political results have both led to and flowed from these 'epistemic' changes. For instance, a polarity seems to have followed the epistemological process that underpins and in some sense justifies science, with various attempts at synthesis attendant on the attacks and recriminations of the two primary sides that seem always to be forming, one arguing that the basic import of our senses and the other contending that nature's unchanging laws must form the foundation for our efforts. Moreover, the level of tension in this opposition will often flow from what is occurring politically, socially, and technologically in a given context, and the assertiveness, or even viciousness, of the intellectual combat will grow when social crisis accompanies changes in these theories of knowledge.
Today's diary provides some 'citizen ammunition' to make understanding what is happening in these conflicts easier.
Certainly, the science wars continue to rage. Meanwhile, science itself, in what the master conceptualizer Thomas Kuhn calls its 'normal science' and 'puzzle-solving' modes, has plugged away at organizing, and effectuating interfaces that channel the natural world, with the support of 'professional,' business, governmental, and social organizations that finance, support, or direct these intellectual efforts. The most basic assumption of this diary series, with Jefferson, is that democracy requires a democratic science. This in turn requires a higher level of understanding of the factors that contribute to science, such as the issues of philosophy and history under review in the first several installments of this series.
BY WAY OF FURTHER INTRODUCTION
Richard Muller, a U.C. Berkeley physics professor, asks in his book, Physics for Future Presidents, "Are you intimidated by physics?...If so, then your are not ready to be a world leader." If we tweak Muller's idea just a bit, to include a wider range of science, and instead of imagining ourselves all to be 'world leaders,' hope for the more humble but arguably just as important role of acting as grassroots participants in the ongoing dialog, then his admonition applies to every citizen. In Muller's words, we cannot "know enough to act wisely, quickly, and proportionately," if we do not undertake to increase both our background and our general understanding.
In moving toward such a common capacity to comprehend, this second piece in a multi-part series provides a modest but more than minimal guide to some of the sources that concentrate on the history of science. Axiomatically, those who want to plot a course to some desirable location must first be able to say with some certainty where they stand. And of course in order to know our position, at some point, in some way, we must know from whence we've come. The following materials can help anyone to orient himself to, or simply to inform herself about, this core component of contemporary culture.
ONLINE MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
To start, a sampling of web-based materials about the history of science offers interested readers a chance to 'bookmark' or otherwise manage resources helpful in attaining the 'clearer comprehension' that makes involving oneself more comfortable.
http://www.tc.umn.edu/...; a basic orientation to the history of engineering and technology occurs here.
http://www.loc.gov/... this is the Library of Congress gateway to finding titles, subject headings, and other helpful info about addressing technical learning or problems.
http://www.creatingtechnology.org/... this NGO gives an overview of and many links to the intersection of technology and society.
http://www.historyoftechnology.org/... a similar sort of site as the preceding, based in Europe, with a better sampling of sources from other societies than appear on many U.S. forums.
http://home.earthlink.net/... this is a bibliography and gateway to the study of science and technology in the American colonies and the United States.
http://www.ownyourself.com/... one of many National Science Foundation web portals, this address offers a chance to find and read history and philosophy of science book reviews.
http://www.intute.ac.uk/... a very accessible and extensive English URL, it provides history of science links, and more, including a "best of the web" section.
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/... the same ultimate source as the previous link, this gives a series of tutorials about understanding and researching science and technical questions.
http://www.imss.fi.it/... perhaps the most extensive overall collection, this Italian site offers both depth about and easy-to-navigate access to almost any question regarding the history and philosophy of science, technology, or medicine.
http://www.fordham.edu/... the Internet History of Science Sourcbook is here, a close competitor with the Italians for breadth and depth and accessibility.
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/... another English location, at Oxford's Museum of the History of Science, directs readers to interesting learning opportunities and gives extensive coverage of web resources.
http://www.dhstweb.org/... another address of awesome scope, it also invites visitors to sign up for list-serves, ongoing blogging and debates about science, and more.
http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/... this University of Pittsburgh site gives searchers the chance to find material that covers difficult technical problems, as well as general background orientation.
http://www.phy6.org/... aimed primarily at science teachers, this locale is full of basic materials about the operations and factual underpinnings of the sciences.
http://www.uh.edu/... this University of Houston godsend gives several thousand thumbnails about the technological aspects of science, including inventors, devices, and mathematical developments.
http://web.clas.ufl.edu/... the handiwork of Dr. Robert A. Hatch, this site gives all kinds of links, resources, and explanatory material about the context and impact of the 'scientific revolution.'
http://www.ownyourself.com/... this NSF address offers a useful date timeline that is very thorough.
http://www.sciencetimeline.net/... while not as thorough as what NSF gives out, it is a very easy-to-navigate site that also puts things in chronological order, and makes some links to more info available too.
These gateways are merely a few opportunities. The 'theory room,' that I noted in the previous essay, is also a stupendous guide. The volume of information is almost overwhelming, of course. A google search for engineering + history, for example, yielded 80,900,000 hits.
TEXTUAL AND MONOGRAPHIC SOURCES AND MATERIALS
In addition to web-searching, active democrats may peruse literally tens of thousands of excellent, full-length texts that guide seekers through these thickets. The following sample includes an acknowledged modern classic; a rumination about technology and society generally; a look at particular problems that have occurred in the U.S., a new standard(in several courses at MIT's STS--Science Technology & Society--program)general text on the history of science; a collection of seminal essays; a groundbreaking and Marxist analysis of the development of the technological growth of modern capitalism, increasing universality of 'scientific' management, and related issues; a monograph on the development and role of mathematical development in society, science, industry, and more; a progressive investigation of biology by a couple of Harvard professors; and a comprehensive timeline of the chronology of science and its elements.
Of course, millions of articles and other sources of ideas and data also exist that can be useful and will occasionally be critical to examine. As an indication of the relevance of the materials provided in this missive, one might consider that, in the Social Science Citation Index, the number one cited source, with more hits than the two and three positions combined, is Thomas Kuhn's work, number one on the list below. Maybe readers should take note and make a vow to read it, or at least consider its content in the context of our multiple contemporary situations that seem to necessitate scientific solutions.
Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (originally published in 1962) ISBN=022645-807-5; Kuhn argues that 'science' is impossible without a paradigm, or set of theoretical and conceptual beliefs, to support it, and that such paradigms emerge from crises that result from competing methods for explaining contradictions that undermine previous paradigms, in the process of which disputes various marvelous points about technology, society, and philosophy emerge.
Merritt Roe Smith and Gregory Clancey, eds. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. 1997. ISBN=066935-472-4; most useful to independent minded explorers, this volume combines documents and essays on thirteen topics, some as general as defining technology, some as specific as 'telephony' or Ford's factories.
Robert C. Scharff, and Val Dusek. The Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition (An Anthology), 2003. ISBN=063122-219-7; another awesome source for the independent minded investigator, this collection has six sections, each of which has a brief intro, and prior to which the authors provide a general introduction, different sections dealing with overall views about historical matters; science, philosophy, and technology; seminal thinkers such as Heidegger, and his critics; definitional issues; and social sections, dealing with 'human ends' and 'social practice' in relation to technology, using actual contemporary essays from philosophers, scientists, critics, and political theorists to explore each issue as it has arisen in history.
Peter J. Bowler, and Iwan Rhys Morus. Making Modern Science: A Historical Survey., 2005. ISBN=022606-860-9; from an introduction, "Science, Society, and History," to two huge sections, the first of which, "Episodes in the Development of Science," examines fields such as chemistry, geology, and so on, and the second of which, "Themes in the Development of Science," examines topics as specific as 'Science and War' and as general as 'The Organization of Science,' the authors undertake to orient the willing reader to almost the entire pantheon of science's self-constitution, as well as diverse social views about its impact and meaning.
Marcus Hellyer, ed., The Scientific Revolution: The Essential Readings (Blackwell Essential Readings in History), 1997 ISBN=063123-630-9; this book of essays introduces readers to originators of the 'History of Science' and 'Science, Technology, and Society' fields, as well as introducing and commenting on the implications and importance of these studies and how we think about them.
Harry Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital,1974 ISBN=085345-340-3; looking at how technology has transformed labor and the political economy of capitalism in his introduction, Braverman then provides a survey of the development and applications of various 'schools' of scientific management, before continuing to examine the uses of science and technology both to control the work force and remove skill from the work process, thus offering a social and political assessment of science and technology in the familiar context of the modern workplace.
Peter L. Bernstein, Against the Gods, 1996 ISBN=047129-563-9; nothing less than the development of most of modern math is on display here, basically including anything that has to do with probability, statistics, or prediction, from Fermat's theorems to game theory and formulations of chaos, providing the reader with a chance to discern both the meaning of various approaches to prediction and the critiques of the different methodologies from opposing perspectives.
Richard Lewontin & Richard Levins, Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture & Health, 2007 ISBN=158367-157-9; this volume, with the most contemporary focus of this set of titles, nevertheless provides an excellent basis for understanding the different perspectives that acccompany general issues of biotechnology, genetics, sociobiology, and other central issues of the modern life sciences, giving the authors' progressive, or even radical viewpoints pride of place in their argument.
Alexander Hellemans and Brian Bunch, The Timetables of Science, 1988 ISBN=067162-130-0; this massive volume not only provides specific chronologies in eleven different categories--including general background, medicine, math, physical science, and technology--but it also offers an overall essay to introduce each epoch--which for the past five hundred years or so pretty closely conform to standard periodizations--and documentary and summary materials about such critically important matters as Galileo's assertions of Copernicus' rectitude and Robert Brown's advances in cell theory, to name just a couple.
Whatever other material a reader considers, or however deeply citizens might consider these volumes, accepting the responsibility to seek understanding of such materials as these, and the ideas that they proffer is a necessary starting gate through which we must pass if we want to be a part of the present process of life in any other than obstructive fashion.
Richard Feynman calls us to this opportunity for power and responsibility..
The same thrill, the same awe and mystery, comes again and again when we look at any question deeply enough. With more knowledge comes a deeper, more wonderful mystery, luring one on to penetrate deeper still. Never concerned that the answer may prove disappointing, with pleasure and confidence we turn over each new stone to find unimagined strangeness leading on to more wonderful questions and mysteries - certainly a grand adventure!
It is true that few unscientific people have this particular type of religious experience. Our poets do not write about it; our artists do not try to portray this remarkable thing. I don't know why. Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers: you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.
In these, the first days of Barack-the-Magnificent, may we find the courage and discipline to inaugurate ourselves as citizen policy-wonks and monitors of all that is, based on a firm foundation of knowledge and the right to seek and find out still more.
TO BE CONTINUED...