Scandalous Knowledge: Science, Truth, and the Human (Science & Cultural Theory) - Hardcover

Smith, Barbara Herrnstein

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822338106 ISBN 13: 9780822338109

Publisher: Duke University Press, 2006

Synopsis

Throughout the recent culture and science "wars," the radically new conceptions of knowledge and science emerging from such fields as the history and sociology of science have been denounced by various journalists, scientists, and academics as irresponsible attacks on science, absurd denials of objective reality, or a cynical abandonment of truth itself. In Scandalous Knowledge, Barbara Herrnstein Smith explores and illuminates the intellectual contexts of these crude denunciations. A preeminent scholar, theorist, and analyst of intellectual history, Smith begins by looking closely at the epistemological developments at issue. She presents a clear, historically informed, and philosophically sophisticated overview of important twentieth-century critiques of traditional-rationalist, realist, positivist-accounts of human knowledge and scientific truth, and discusses in detail the alternative accounts produced by Ludwik Fleck, Thomas Kuhn, Michel Foucault, Bruno Latour, and others. With keen wit, Smith demonstrates that the familiar charges involved in these scandals-including the recurrent invocation of "postmodern relativism"-protect intellectual orthodoxy by falsely associating important intellectual developments with logically absurd and morally or politically disabling positions. She goes on to offer bold, original, and insightful perspectives on the currently strained relations between the natural sciences and the humanities; on the grandiose but dubious claims of evolutionary psychology to explain human behavior, cognition, and culture; and on contemporary controversies over the psychology, biology, and ethics of animal-human relations. Scandalous Knowledge is a provocative and compelling intervention into controversies that continue to roil through journalism, pulpits, laboratories, and classrooms throughout the United States and Europe.

About this title

Review

"Elegantly written and constructed, amusing and energetic, Scandalous Knowledge continues Barbara Herrnstein Smith's edgy and distinctly partial commentary on the science wars between realists and constructivists. Constructivists will be intrigued by the novel, and sometimes critical, avenues the book explores. Realists will be, well, scandalized."--Andrew Pickering, author of The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science

"Scandalously unimpressed by the charges, countercharges, and prudent middle paths found in current disputes over science and truth, Barbara Herrnstein Smith deploys her ferocious intelligence, wicked wit, and broad understanding to provide us with a tonic mixture of empathy and resources for taking positions that are both informed and responsible. She does not flinch before the barrage of outrages; neither, this book in hand, need we."--Susan Oyama, author of Evolution's Eye: A Systems View of the Biology-Culture Divide

"Scandalous Knowledge is invigorating intellectual criticism that succeeds on many levels, not the least of which is its ability to reacquaint radial epistemologists with their own radicalism."--Lisa Uddin "Topia "

"A tremendously valuable articulation of the theory and practice of constructivism, Scandalous Knowledge is an important and effective intervention into a variety of epistemological debates in a number of different disciplines. . . . Consistently adroit and engaging, Barbara Herrnstein Smith offers her readers a scandalously gratifying and generative reassessment of some of the most basic concepts of intellectual exchange."--Robert Azzarello "Cultural Critique "

"I take from Scandalous Knowledge its strong argument for the benefits of remaining curious and open-minded to developments both within one's specialized field and across the interdisciplinary board, an argument, which could be made both for individual researchers and for entire disciplines. Smith's own work is an excellent illustration of the conceptual and analytical possibilities engendered by intellectual expansiveness and refuses to be drawn into the provinciality of disciplinary turf wars as well as agendas to make research practically useful (or duly normative) along narrowly conceived lines. A good dose of Scandalous Knowledge is thus strongly to be recommended. . . ."--Casper Bruun Jensen "Social Studies of Science "

About the Author

Barbara Herrnstein Smith is Braxton Craven Professor of Comparative Literature and English at Duke University and Director of its Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory, and Distinguished Professor of English at Brown University. Among her books are Belief and Resistance: Dynamics of Contemporary Intellectual Controversy and Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory. Smith is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Edition details

• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0822338106
• ISBN 13: 9780822338109
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208