- Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Contents 1 Introduction: The Six Styles of Knowing 2 The Deductive Style of Science 3 The Deductive Style in a Christian Context 4 From Scholar to Virtuoso: The Renaissance Origin of the Experimental Style 5 The... more
Contents
1 Introduction: The Six Styles of Knowing
2 The Deductive Style of Science
3 The Deductive Style in a Christian Context
4 From Scholar to Virtuoso: The Renaissance Origin of the Experimental Style
5 The Experimental Style II: The Skeptics and their Opponents
6 The Experimental Style III: Alchemy and the New Sciences
7 The Hypothetical Style: Analogies between Nature and Technology
8 The Taxonomic Style
9 Statistical Analysis as a Style of Science
10 The Evolutionary Style
11 Science in the Twentieth Century
1 Introduction: The Six Styles of Knowing
2 The Deductive Style of Science
3 The Deductive Style in a Christian Context
4 From Scholar to Virtuoso: The Renaissance Origin of the Experimental Style
5 The Experimental Style II: The Skeptics and their Opponents
6 The Experimental Style III: Alchemy and the New Sciences
7 The Hypothetical Style: Analogies between Nature and Technology
8 The Taxonomic Style
9 Statistical Analysis as a Style of Science
10 The Evolutionary Style
11 Science in the Twentieth Century
Dit boek komt voort uit het wetenschapsfilosofieonderwijs dat ik de afgelopen jaren heb gegeven aan studenten aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Het is uiteraard de bedoeling dat het ook weer zijn weg vindt naar het onderwijs, maar... more
Dit boek komt voort uit het wetenschapsfilosofieonderwijs dat ik de afgelopen jaren heb gegeven aan studenten aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Het is uiteraard de bedoeling dat het ook weer zijn weg vindt naar het onderwijs, maar tegelijkertijd geef ik het ook de pretentie mee van een wetenschappelijke bijdrage. Het perspectief namelijk van waaruit het boek is geschreven, stijlen van wetenschap, is ondanks de steeds grotere internationale belangstelling daarvoor, nog voldoende onontgonnen om te kunnen pionieren. Het idee van het bestaan van zes verschillende stijlen in de wetenschap is rond 1980 voor het eerst geopperd door de historicus Alistair Crombie. De door hem onderscheiden stijlen zijn: 1) de deductieve, 2) de experimentele, 3) de hypothetisch-analogische, 4) de taxonomische, 5) de statistische en 6) de historisch-evolutionaire. Crombie nam de stijlen als historische gegevenheden. Hij leidde ze dus niet af uit een of ander a priori schema (en dat had hij goed gezien).
Inhoud
1. Theorie
2. Experiment
3. Waarneming
4. Tekst
5. Maatschappij
Inhoud
1. Theorie
2. Experiment
3. Waarneming
4. Tekst
5. Maatschappij
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Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the... more
Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.
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Now available in English, "Styles of Knowing" explores the development of various scientific reasoning processes in cultural-historical context. Influenced by historian Alistair Crombie s" Styles of Scientific Thinking in... more
Now available in English, "Styles of Knowing" explores the development of various scientific reasoning processes in cultural-historical context. Influenced by historian Alistair Crombie s" Styles of Scientific Thinking in the European Tradition, " Chunglin Kwa organizes his book according to six distinct styles: deductive, experimental, analytical-hypothetical, taxonomic, statistical, and evolutionary. Instead of featuring individual scientific disciplines in different chapters, each chapter explains the historical applications of each style s unique criterion for good science. Kwa shows also how styles have influenced each other and transformed over time. In a chapter written especially for American audiences, Kwa examines how changes in engineering and technology during the twentieth century affected the balance among the various styles of science. Based on extensive research in Greek and Latin primary sources and numerous modern secondary sources, Kwa demonstrates the heterogeneous nature of scientific discovery. This accessible and innovative introduction to scientific change provides a foundational history for the classroom, historians, and nonspecialists."
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Research Interests: Sociology and Philosophy
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The idea of alliances between technology and a scientific style recognizes the specificity of technology as a style in its own right, but at the same time it goes against the claim that technology is ‘autonomous’, at least in very many... more
The idea of alliances between technology and a scientific style recognizes the specificity of technology as a style in its own right, but at the same time it goes against the claim that technology is ‘autonomous’, at least in very many cases of technological development. The model of alliances between styles implies that neither technology can be subsumed under science, nor vice versa. There is in fact not one alliance between technology and science, but several: six styles of science allowing for the possibility of, in principle, six different alliances and possibly even more.
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CHUNGLIN KWA Romantic and Baroque Conceptions of Complex Wholes in the Sciences In the 1990s complexity came to mean something different from what it predominantly meant in the 1950s. The newer complexity is not simply an extension of, or... more
CHUNGLIN KWA Romantic and Baroque Conceptions of Complex Wholes in the Sciences In the 1990s complexity came to mean something different from what it predominantly meant in the 1950s. The newer complexity is not simply an extension of, or a development from, ...
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Landscape took on a new meaning through the new science of plant geography of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1857). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, “landscape” was foremost a painterly genre. Slowly, painted landscapes came to... more
Landscape took on a new meaning through the new science of plant geography of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1857). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, “landscape” was foremost a painterly genre. Slowly, painted landscapes came to bear on natural surroundings, but by 1800 it was still not common to designate sites as “landscapes.” Humboldt looked at plant vegetation with a painterly gaze. Artists, according to him, could suggest in their work that an abstract unity lay hidden underneath observable phenomena. Humboldt projected painted landscapes on nature and found its ecological unity. By doing so, he ultimately stripped the concept of landscape from its primary visual meaning.
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(Authors: Chunglin Kwa, Mieke van Hemert and Lieuwe van der Weij). Aesthetic features of landscape pictures play a role in many stages of research in geography and landscape ecology. The ability to discern patterns in pictures is... more
(Authors: Chunglin Kwa, Mieke van Hemert and Lieuwe van der Weij). Aesthetic features of landscape pictures play a role in many stages of research in geography and landscape ecology. The ability to discern patterns in pictures is dependent on the availability of two Gestalts: the holistic and the fragmented landscape. The former was historically formed around the landscape painting, the latter is evident in aerial photography and pictures of landscapes on the basis of remote sensing. Gestalts are at the beginning of a road towards increasing mathematisation. But at the end of the road, the qualities of the images (usually obtained after a modeling process) do not revolve around geometric abstraction, but rather, in an opposite way, they show the unforeseen. Inspecting images for unexpected outcomes can be seen as a form of ‘de-mathematisation’.
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Abstract This paper considers some aspects of the early history of the American contribution to the International Biological Programme (IBP), ecology's only venture intoBig Science'. It is argued that... more
Abstract This paper considers some aspects of the early history of the American contribution to the International Biological Programme (IBP), ecology's only venture intoBig Science'. It is argued that American ecologists were successful in obtaining generous funding for the ...
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The story of the Grasslands Biome Project in the US International Biological Programme (IBP), 1968-1976, based on first-hand interviews with various participants. The development of the grassland ecosystem model, and the dramatic turn of... more
The story of the Grasslands Biome Project in the US International Biological Programme (IBP), 1968-1976, based on first-hand interviews with various participants. The development of the grassland ecosystem model, and the dramatic turn of events during the leadership of the late George Van Dyne.
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This paper studies the development of two ecology groups, at the University of Georgia and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, from the early 1950s through the 1960s. Their common starting point was radiation ecology, almost completely in a... more
This paper studies the development of two ecology groups, at the University of Georgia and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, from the early 1950s through the 1960s. Their common starting point was radiation ecology, almost completely in a mission-oriented context, geared to the needs of the Atomic Energy Commission. Both groups moved toward a much more comprehensive ecosystem ecology (Eugene Odum at UGa) and systems ecology (Jerry Olson's analog computer models of ecosystems in 1959).
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(Authors: Chunglin Kwa and Mieke van Hemert).
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The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), a large international research programme, served to set the research agenda of a number of environmental sciences around the issue of global warming and global change. This paper... more
The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), a large international research programme, served to set the research agenda of a number of environmental sciences around the issue of global warming and global change. This paper examines the impact of the interdisciplinary cooperation within the IGBP on ecology and the ecologists’ response. Ecology was an integral part of the IGBP from the beginning, yet it was sometimes in uneasy cohabitation with the other sciences involved. The issues of global warming and global change posed opportunities and challenges to ecology. They posed opportunities because an important cause emerged, with promises of exciting new (space) technologies and new funds for the environmental sciences. They posed challenges, because by aligning itself to sciences that study the earth system as a whole, ecology was invited implicitly to bracket its
focus on the specificity of local ecosystems, that is, to give up ecology’s traditional focus on field studies of plant and animal communities. My aim in this paper is to place the opportunities that global change research offered to ecology in the context of changes within the field that were already underway. Power relationships between disciplines did not give ecology an upper hand vis-à-vis the other earth sciences, but ecologists were able nevertheless to redefine subtly the notion of the global.
focus on the specificity of local ecosystems, that is, to give up ecology’s traditional focus on field studies of plant and animal communities. My aim in this paper is to place the opportunities that global change research offered to ecology in the context of changes within the field that were already underway. Power relationships between disciplines did not give ecology an upper hand vis-à-vis the other earth sciences, but ecologists were able nevertheless to redefine subtly the notion of the global.
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Since 1990 or so, funding agencies have taken it upon themselves to steer the sciences toward interdisciplinarity. Prior to 1980, funding agencies spoke in the name of science to the national states, articulating the needs of science.... more
Since 1990 or so, funding agencies have taken it upon themselves to steer the sciences toward interdisciplinarity.
Prior to 1980, funding agencies spoke in the name of science to the national states, articulating the needs of science. They now speak to science, urging reforms and increased cooperation among scientists.
In this paper, the International Geosphere-Biosphere
Programme (IGBP) is studied, along with an informal science policy body: the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA).
Prior to 1980, funding agencies spoke in the name of science to the national states, articulating the needs of science. They now speak to science, urging reforms and increased cooperation among scientists.
In this paper, the International Geosphere-Biosphere
Programme (IGBP) is studied, along with an informal science policy body: the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA).
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Review of Practising Interdisciplinarity, edited by Peter Weingart and Nico Stehr, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000
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(Authors: Chunglin Kwa and René Rector). After 1980, and going full steam since 1990 or so, a number of sciences have reoriented themselves to data gathering on a scale immensely larger than practiced in the post-World War II decades.... more
(Authors: Chunglin Kwa and René Rector).
After 1980, and going full steam since 1990 or so, a number of sciences have reoriented themselves to data gathering on a scale immensely larger than practiced in the post-World War II decades. We are witnessing a new ‘avalanche of data’, and fears of becoming ‘drowned in data’ have been repeatedly expressed. The data-dominated sciences can often be located within large national and international programs. What we hope to elucidate in this chapter is, however, is a more limited instance of the data revolution: its relation to new cooperative work patterns in science. We study a group of seven Dutch ecologists, who after 1990 all became involved with research on the influence of climate change on ecological systems, and we follow them to 2005. The primary vehicle that made them engage in climate research was an international scientific program: the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).
After 1980, and going full steam since 1990 or so, a number of sciences have reoriented themselves to data gathering on a scale immensely larger than practiced in the post-World War II decades. We are witnessing a new ‘avalanche of data’, and fears of becoming ‘drowned in data’ have been repeatedly expressed. The data-dominated sciences can often be located within large national and international programs. What we hope to elucidate in this chapter is, however, is a more limited instance of the data revolution: its relation to new cooperative work patterns in science. We study a group of seven Dutch ecologists, who after 1990 all became involved with research on the influence of climate change on ecological systems, and we follow them to 2005. The primary vehicle that made them engage in climate research was an international scientific program: the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).
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Postmodern science has aspects of both technoscience and interdisciplinary science, but is described exhaustively by neither. Twenty‐five years ago, Lyotard expected that postmodern science would reinforce our capacity to endure... more
Postmodern science has aspects of both technoscience and interdisciplinary science, but is described exhaustively by neither. Twenty‐five years ago, Lyotard expected that postmodern science would reinforce our capacity to endure incommensurability. This paper suggests that the reverse is true also. Ignoring incommensurability is a precondition for the emergence of postmodern science. The bias in several large international science programs since around 1980 is toward data gathering and the technological and experimental aspects of science. Interdisciplinarity is the mechanism used to bring this about. One precondition of the success of these efforts is the low status of theory in current science and a predominance of data.
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This paper aims to achieve insight into various ecological theories in the Netherlands which have different, and sometimes opposing, views on the conservation of nature. Interviews, publications and archival research brought to light four... more
This paper aims to achieve insight into various ecological theories in the Netherlands which have different, and sometimes opposing, views on the conservation of nature. Interviews, publications and archival research brought to light four separate theories: ‘vitalistic/holistic’, ‘dynamic’, ‘cybernetic’ and ‘chaos’. Diversity is reached through stability according to vitalistic/holistic and cybernetic theories, but through change and instablility according to the ‘dynamic’ and ‘chaos’ theories. These two groups are working apart, and continue to have their own ideas. Prediction of the future is only possible with the ‘vitalistic/holistic’ and ‘cybernetic’ theories. Ecologists who adhere to these theories feel responsible and able in different ways to change ecological nature towards desirable end goals. The other two theories, ‘dynamic’ and ‘chaos’, appear to be less activist.
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ABSTRACT The race toward completing the human genome has become the new classic case of competition in science. We have several older classic cases, such as the one in the 1960s between Guillemin and Schally to elucidate the chemical... more
ABSTRACT The race toward completing the human genome has become the new classic case of competition in science. We have several older classic cases, such as the one in the 1960s between Guillemin and Schally to elucidate the chemical composition of Thyroxin Releasing Hormone (TRH) (Latour & Woolgar, 1986). Contests like these have a number of shared characteristics. First, competition may devolve into personal antagonism, as in the Human Genome Project (HGP), which was characterized by competition between Craig Venter and the public consortium. Second, the criteria to be met are changed along the way. In the Guillemin-Schally case, for instance, this concerned gas chromatography, which was enforced by one of the parties as the new quality standard for separating chemical fractions. In the HGP it was the shift from hunting individual genes to sequencing the entire human genome. And third, there are often demonstrations of brute force approaches, as in the processing of the huge quantities of sheep brain tissue needed for extracting a tiny amount of TRH, which required searching entire slaughterhouses. Venter used a brute force approach from beginning to end.
"Contemporary visions of nature have been deeply affected by the ongoing interaction and interpenetration of science, nature, and society. These new visions appear to be more complex than older visions of nature and at the same time they... more
"Contemporary visions of nature have been deeply affected by the ongoing interaction and interpenetration of science, nature, and society. These new visions appear to be more complex than older visions of nature and at the same time they seem to challenge our notions of authenticity.
“New Visions of Nature” focuses on the emergence of these new visions of complex nature in three domains. The first selection of essays reflects public visions of nature, that is, nature as it is experienced, encountered, and instrumentalized by diverse publics. The second selection zooms in on micro nature and explores the world of contemporary genomics. The final section returns to the macro word and discusses the ethics of place in present-day landscape philosophy and environmental ethics.
The contributions to this volume explore perceptual and conceptual boundaries between the human and the natural, or between an ‘out there’ and ‘in here.’ They attempt to specify how nature has been publicly and genomically constructed, known and described through metaphors and re-envisioned in terms of landscape and place. By parsing out and rendering explicit these divergent views, the volume asks for a re-thinking of our relationship with nature.
“New Visions of Nature” focuses on the emergence of these new visions of complex nature in three domains. The first selection of essays reflects public visions of nature, that is, nature as it is experienced, encountered, and instrumentalized by diverse publics. The second selection zooms in on micro nature and explores the world of contemporary genomics. The final section returns to the macro word and discusses the ethics of place in present-day landscape philosophy and environmental ethics.
The contributions to this volume explore perceptual and conceptual boundaries between the human and the natural, or between an ‘out there’ and ‘in here.’ They attempt to specify how nature has been publicly and genomically constructed, known and described through metaphors and re-envisioned in terms of landscape and place. By parsing out and rendering explicit these divergent views, the volume asks for a re-thinking of our relationship with nature.
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Between 1925 and 1980, landscape ecology underwent important changes through the gradual imposition of the view from above, through the uses of aerial photography. A new concept emerged, “the smallest unit of landscape,” also called... more
Between 1925 and 1980, landscape ecology underwent important changes through the gradual imposition of the view from above, through the uses of aerial photography. A new concept emerged, “the smallest unit of landscape,” also called ecotope and land unit, expressing a direct visual grasp of the landscape. This article compares the view from above as introduced and promoted by geographers Carl Troll and Isaak Zonneveld, with its (problematic) history vis-à-vis a school of ecology, i.e., plant sociology, led by Josias Braun-Blanquet and Reinhold Tüxen. This school’s internal struggles with balancing the physiognomic gaze (at the ground) and numerical methods are discussed. In comparison, the geographers based themselves on the mechanical objectivity of standardized aerial surveys, whereas the plant sociologists relied on their subjective expert judgment of plant recognition together with the structural objectivity of their numerical methods. An important communality of both schools wa...
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... The National Science Board had not been enthusiastic about the IBP. However, the NSF's Director of the Division of Biological and Medical Sciences, Harve Carlson, was sympathetic to it. After the Williamstown meeting, he... more
... The National Science Board had not been enthusiastic about the IBP. However, the NSF's Director of the Division of Biological and Medical Sciences, Harve Carlson, was sympathetic to it. After the Williamstown meeting, he supported ...
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... in splendid isolation. a history of the willie commelin scholten phytopathology laboratory 1894-1992 door Patricia Faasse. ... Hoewel het bijna onmogelijk lijkt dat een historicus nog iets weet toe te voegen aan de reconstructie van... more
... in splendid isolation. a history of the willie commelin scholten phytopathology laboratory 1894-1992 door Patricia Faasse. ... Hoewel het bijna onmogelijk lijkt dat een historicus nog iets weet toe te voegen aan de reconstructie van het verhaal van de Mendelherontdekking, is ...