Research Catalog

Shaping science with rhetoric : the cases of Dobzhansky, Schrödinger, and Wilson

Title: Shaping science with rhetoric : the cases of Dobzhansky, Schrödinger, and Wilson / Leah Ceccarelli.
Author: Ceccarelli, Leah.
Publication: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, ©2001.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	QH303.6 .C433 2001	Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 204 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

This book is about interdisciplinarity--how scientists reach across disciplinary borders to motivate colleagues with very different intellectual and professional commitments to embark on new interdisciplinary lines of research. Disciplinarity is also the purpose of this book [preface].

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-197) and index.

Contents

1 Inspiring Interdisciplinarity 1 -- Texts That Seek to Catalyze Community: An Unexamined Genre of Science 3 -- Close Textual-Intertextual Analysis: Combining Rhetorical Criticism and Historical Research 6 -- I Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species -- 2 Initiator of the Evolutionary Synthesis: Historians and Scientist Weigh In 13 -- Conflict between Disciplines and Theories 15 -- Evolutionary Synthesis 19 -- What Launched the Synthesis? 21 -- Influence of Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species 24 -- Prelude to a Rhetorical Reading 29 -- 3 A Text Rhetorically Designed to Unite Competing Fields 31 -- Simplifying Theory 31 -- Surveying the Results of Research 37 -- Using Language That Promotes Conceptual Change 41 -- Addressing Social Concerns 45 -- II Erwin Schrodinger's What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell -- 4 "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of the Molecular Biology Revolution: Assessing the Place of a Text in History 61 -- Influence of Schrodinger's Text 63 -- Value of Untrue, Unoriginal Science 67 -- Other Laws of Physics 75 -- Prelude to a Rhetorical Reading 80 -- 5 A Text Rhetorically Designed to Negotiate Different Interests and Beliefs 82 -- Comparison with Other Attempts at Inspiring Interdisciplinary Work 83 -- Negotiating Common Ground: The Value of Precision 89 -- Negotiating Professional Goals: The Appeal to Ambition 90 -- Negotiating Disciplinary Linguistic Practices: Conceptual Chiasmus 92 -- Negotiating Ideological Commitments: Strategic Ambiguity 97 -- III Edward O. Wilson's Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge -- 6 Controversy over Sociobiology: Scholars Offer Conflicting Explanations 113 -- Wilson's Purpose 113 -- Effect of Wilson's Interdisciplinary Appeals 116 -- Explanation 1: Wilson Is Wrong; The Cultural Divide Should Not Be Bridged 119 -- Explanation 2: Critics Are Unable to See the Truth Because of Political Bias 121 -- Prelude to a Rhetorical Reading 124 -- 7 A Text Rhetorically Designed to Fuel Interdisciplinary Hostilities 128 -- A Rhetoric of Conquest, Not Negotiation 129 -- An Explicit Commitment to Reductionism 139 -- Equivocation Rather Than Productive Polysemy 145 -- What Wilson's Consilience Could Have Been 148 -- IV Speaking to Multiple Audiences -- 8 Genre 157 -- Comparison of Dobzhansky and Schrodinger 158 -- Wilson's Participation in the Genre 164 -- 9 Contributions to Four Ongoing Conversations 168 -- Rhetoric of Science 168 -- Rhetorical Inquiry 170 -- History of Science 177 -- Interdisciplinarity 179.

ISBN

0226099067
9780226099064
0226099075
9780226099071

LCCN

00012179

OCLC

ocm45276826
45276826
SCSB-1225516

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library