The Ideals of Joseph Ben-David

The Ideals of Joseph Ben-David
Author: Liah Greenfeld
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2017-09-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351481088

Joseph Ben-David died twenty-five years ago, in January 1986. An eminent sociologist of science, and a co-founder of this sub-discipline, he was only sixty-five years old. Few social scientists are remembered after they die and can no longer parlay their influence into the goods of this world for colleagues and acquaintances. This was not Ben-David's fate. His work continues to be taught and referred to by scholars spread far and wide (in terms of both countries and disciplines). His students never forgot him, his books were republished, and his essays appeared in new collections. Ben-David's legacy includes ideas and ideals. Its central tenet is the autonomy of science, its right--and duty--to be value-free. Scholarship oriented to any goal other than the accumulation of objective knowledge about empirical reality, for him, was science no longer and did not have its authority. In this light, the life of scholarship was one of moral dedication, with nothing less than the fate of liberal democratic society depending on it. And for science to thrive, the university, its home, had to be the embodiment of the cardinal virtue of this society: the virtue of civility. In the spirit of Ben-David, believing that scholarly debate advances common good, and rational discourse wins whichever way arguments in it are settled, this festschrift debates such core issues as the nature of science, its changing definition and position in Western society, the forms of organization optimal for scientific creativity, and the ability of the research university to foster scientific growth, while also performing its educational role.

Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe
Author: Lesley B. Cormack
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2017-03-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319494309

This book argues that we can only understand transformations of nature studies in the Scientific Revolution if we take seriously the interaction between practitioners (those who know by doing) and scholars (those who know by thinking). These are not in opposition, however. Theory and practice are end points on a continuum, with some participants interested only in the practical, others only in the theoretical, and most in the murky intellectual and material world in between. It is this borderland where influence, appropriation, and collaboration have the potential to lead to new methods, new subjects of enquiry, and new social structures of natural philosophy and science. The case for connection between theory and practice can be most persuasively drawn in the area of mathematics, which is the focus of this book. Practical mathematics was a growing field in early modern Europe and these essays are organised into three parts which contribute to the debate about the role of mathematical practice in the Scientific Revolution. First, they demonstrate the variability of the identity of practical mathematicians, and of the practices involved in their activities in early modern Europe. Second, readers are invited to consider what practical mathematics looked like and that although practical mathematical knowledge was transmitted and circulated in a wide variety of ways, participants were able to recognize them all as practical mathematics. Third, the authors show how differences and nuances in practical mathematics typically depended on the different contexts in which it was practiced: social, cultural, political, and economic particularities matter. Historians of science, especially those interested in the Scientific Revolution period and the history of mathematics will find this book and its ground-breaking approach of particular interest.

Scientific Growth

Scientific Growth
Author: Joseph Ben-David
Publisher:
Total Pages: 591
Release: 1991
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780520069251

"Here, for the first time, we have the work of a key pioneer presented in all its depth and range. The pragmatic and prophetic voice of Joseph Ben-David speaks with a power and a clarity that will win the attention of a new generation of scholars."--Arnold Thackray, University of Pennsylvania "A superb collection of brilliant papers by a pioneering mind of international fame, who did much to shape the sociology of science. In organizing this major work, its knowing editor, Gad Freudenthal, has identified a remarkable sociological edifice that exhibits the theoretical coherence of Joseph Ben-David's many-sided and evolving contributions to the field."--Robert K. Merton, Columbia University

Secret Texts

Secret Texts
Author: Marie Mulvey Roberts
Publisher:
Total Pages: 384
Release: 1995
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

Among the authors whose writings are explored in this volume are: Swift, Peacock, Dickens, Paladin, Kipling, Yeats and A.E. Waite.

Sociologists in Search of Their Intellectual Domain

Sociologists in Search of Their Intellectual Domain
Author: Gunnar Boalt
Publisher: Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell International
Total Pages: 172
Release: 1979
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Presents three sociological approaches in Sweden: empirical-statistical, theoretical and applied research.