Mathematics, Science, and Postclassical Theory

Published by Duke University Press 1997

Mathematics, Science, and Postclassical Theory

Edited by: Barbara Herrnstein Smith and Arkady Plotnitsky
With contributions by: Brian Rotman and Andrew Pickering

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822382720

Overview
Contents

About this book

Mathematics, Science, and Postclassical Theory is a unique collection of essays dealing with the intersections between science and mathematics and the radical reconceptions of knowledge, language, proof, truth, and reality currently emerging from poststructuralist literary theory, constructivist history and sociology of science, and related work in contemporary philosophy. Featuring a distinguished group of international contributors, this volume engages themes and issues central to current theoretical debates in virtually all disciplines: agency, causality, determinacy, representation, and the social dynamics of knowledge. In a substantive introductory essay, the editors explain the notion of "postclassical theory" and discuss the significance of ideas such as emergence and undecidability in current work in and on science and mathematics. Other essays include a witty examination of the relations among mathematical thinking, writing, and the technologies of virtual reality; an essay that reconstructs the conceptual practices that led to a crucial mathematical discovery—or construction—in the 19th century; a discussion of the implications of Bohr’s complementarity principle for classical ideas of reality; an examination of scientific laboratories as "hybrid" communities of humans and nonhumans; an analysis of metaphors of control, purpose, and necessity in contemporary biology; an exploration of truth and lies, and the play of words and numbers in Shakespeare, Frege, Wittgenstein, and Beckett; and a final chapter on recent engagements, or nonengagements, between rationalist/realist philosophy of science and contemporary science studies. Contributors. Malcolm Ashmore, Michel Callon, Owen Flanagan, John Law, Susan Oyama, Andrew Pickering, Arkady Plotnitsky, Brian Rotman, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, John Vignaux Smyth, E. Roy Weintraub

Author / Editor information

Barbara Herrnstein Smith is Professor of Comparative Literature and English and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory at Duke University. Arkady Plotnitsky is Visiting Scholar at Duke University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction: Networks and Symmetries, Decidable and Undecidable Barbara Herrnstein Smith and Arkady Plotnitsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Thinking Dia-Grams: Mathematics, Writing, and Virtual Reality Brian Rotman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Concepts and the Mangle of Practice: Constructing Quaternions Andrew Pickering Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
The Moment of Truth on Dublin Bridge: A Response to Andrew Pickering Owen Flanagan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
Explanation, Agency, and Metaphysics: A Reply to Owen Flanagan Andrew Pickering Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
Agency and the Hybrid Collectif Michel Callon and John Law Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
The Accidental Chordate: Contingency in Developmental Systems Susan Oyama Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
Complementarity, Idealization, and the Limits of Classical Conceptions of Reality Arkady Plotnitsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
Is "Is a Precursor of" a Transitive Relation? E. Roy Weintraub Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Fraud by Numbers: Quantitative Rhetoric in the Piltdown Forgery Discovery Malcolm Ashmore Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
A Glance at SunSet: Numerical Fundaments in Frege, Wittgenstein, Shakespeare, Beckett John Vignaux Smyth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	212
Microdynamics of Incommensurability: Philosophy of Science Meets Science Studies Barbara Herrnstein Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 288

eBook

Published: March 4, 1997
ISBN: 9780822382720