Growing Explanations: Historical Perspectives on Recent Science

Published by Duke University Press 2004

Growing Explanations

Historical Perspectives on Recent Science

Edited by: M. Norton Wise , Barbara Herrnstein Smith and E. Roy Weintraub
With contributions by: Peter Galison and Amy Dahan Dalmedico

In the series Science and Cultural Theory

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822390084

Overview
Contents

About this book

This collection addresses a post-WWII shift in the hierarchy of scientific explanations, where the highest goal moves from reductionism towards some understanding of how elementary objects get built up, or "grown up", into complex, objects whose

Author / Editor information

M. Norton Wise is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a coauthor of Energy and Empire: A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin and the editor of The Values of Precision.

Reviews

“Growing Explanations registers the profound shift in many domains of science—from chaos theory to functional genomics—giving epistemological priority to complex and emergent phenomena. Anyone interested in the nature of contemporary science, especially the central role of the computer, will find this a fascinating read.”—Angela N. H. Creager, Princeton University

“M. Norton Wise has orchestrated a volume of cutting-edge work exploring the sea change in contemporary models of explanation fueled by advances in computation, simulation, and the new sciences of complexity. The authors illustrate how, across a wide spectrum of disciplines, new strategies based on ‘growing explanations’ to understand the emergent behaviors of systems constructed from the bottom up are replacing the traditional ‘reductionist’ credo of explaining complex phenomena in terms of simple entities. An important and timely volume for anyone interested in science studies.”—Timothy Lenoir, author of Instituting Science: The Cultural Production of Scientific Disciplines

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction: dynamics all the way up Norton Wise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
part i Mathematics, physics, and engineering Elementary particles?
1 Mirror symmetry: persons, values, and objects Peter Galison Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
Nonlinear dynamics and chaos Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
2 Chaos, disorder, and mixing: a new fin-de-siècle image of science? Amy Dalmedico Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Forms of explanation in the catastrophe theory of René Thom: topology, morphogenesis, and structuralism David Aubin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Coping with complexity in technology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
4 From Boeing to Berkeley: civil engineers, the cold war, and the origins of finite element analysis Ann Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
5 Fuzzyfying the world: social practices of showing the properties of fuzzy logic Claude Rosental Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
part ii The organism, the self, and (artificial) life Self-Organization
6 Marrying the premodern to the postmodern: computers and organisms after World War II Evelyn Keller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Immunology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
7 Immunology and the enigma of selfhood Alfred Tauber Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
8 Immunology and aids: growing explanations and developing instruments Ilana Löwy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
Artificial Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
9 Artificial life support: some nodes in the Alife ribotype Richard Doyle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
The word for world is computer: simulating second natures in artificial life Stefan Helmreich Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
11 Constructing and explaining emergence in artificial life: on paradigms, ontodefinitions, and general knowledge in biology Claus Emmeche Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 356
Illustrations
- Other: 11 figures

eBook

Published: November 24, 2004
ISBN: 9780822390084