Science Studies

This article examines how 'safety case' experts working on Finland’s nuclear waste repository project at Olkiluoto summoned, conjured, or channeled memories of Seppo—a deceased colleague whose ‘specter,’ as some put it, still ‘haunts’ their scientific community. For some, Seppo’s postmortem presence manifested as gaps in knowledge left behind by an expert often reluctant to document the methodological assumptions underlying his knowledge-practices. For others, it manifested as anecdotes about Seppo’s stubbornness, irritability, and intellectual intensity as well as his more jovial demeanor during sauna nights, workplace parties, or trips abroad. Still others caught themselves asking ‘What Would Seppo Do?’ while troubleshooting at work. Inspired by anthropological and philosophical work on ancestors and haunting, the article unpacks how the multi-millennial time horizons of nuclear waste risk, the intergenerational time horizons of expert succession, and the everyday time horizons of a single expert life-course shared entwined fates. It focuses less on what knowledge disappeared when an expert’s body died – or how it could have been preventatively backed-up or managed – and more on what has lived on of the expert in and through surviving colleagues. Analysis of 'afterlives of expertise' like these can, it concludes, provide insights for a current moment of intergenerational transition in nuclear energy sectors in Europe, North America, and beyond.

The authors present the historical analysis of one of the central questions in psychology: how and why the nonautomatic, psychological level of regulation (in contrast to automatic physiological processes) emerges both in evolution and in everyday context of activity. They discuss several approaches (by Lipps, Groos, Stern, James, Dewey, Claparède, Pavlov, and Leontiev) that culminated in the system of ideas developed by Galperin, one of the key figures in the culturalhistorical activity theory. The authors analyze the relation of Galperin's ideas to Vygotsky's theoretical framework and then focus on Galperin's account of the origin and functions of mental activity. Galperin's contribution is highly relevant for understanding the role of psychological regulation and for contemporary research on cognition, consciousness, and conscious awareness.

Cet article analyse la façon dont les promoteurs de la discipline "anthropologie juridique", ont, dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, fait du rejet de l'ethnocentrisme juridique la pierre angulaire de leur fondation disciplinaire. En substituant une nouvelle discipline ("l'anthropologie juridique") à l'ancienne "ethnologie juridique", ils ont déployé des efforts considérables afin d'analyser les droits extra-occidentaux sans recourir aux catégories occidentales (et en particulier romaines) du droit.

Citation
Michał Stanisław Jasiński, “Michał Jan Borch, Listy o Sycylii i Malcie, przeł., oprac. i wstęp A. Szastyńska-Siemion, I.Z. Siemion, Warszawa 2015.,” Nauka Polska. Jej Potrzeby, Organizacja i Rozwój, accessed April 12, 2017, https://naukapolska.locloud.pl/items/show/19.

Se han realizado diversos estudios sobre la percepción infantil de la ciencia y de el/la científico/a en países desarrollados, tanto en Europa como en Norteamérica. Sin embargo, aún falta conocimiento empírico sobre dicha materia en países en vías de desarrollo como es el caso de Chile. La presente experiencia aborda el análisis de la percepción de la ciencia de el/la científico/a en niños entre once y trece años con talento académico de la Región de Antofagasta, Chile. Se escogió esta zona por ser una región con alto desarrollo científico en las áreas de la astronomía, acuicultura, biotecnología y minería, entre otras. El estudio se realizó a modo de seguimiento en el marco de un curso sobre periodismo científico del Programa DELTA (Desarrollando y Liderando Talentos Académicos) de la Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN). La modalidad de seguimiento permitió constatar cambios de percepciones a medida que el curso se iba desarrollando, es decir, un contacto directo con científicos/as cambió las percepciones que los niños tenían de éstos. Asimismo un acercamiento como el que ofrece el periodismo científico produjo cambios en la percepción sobre la ciencia y una valorización hacia las potencialidades científicas de la región.

The talk will open with a discussion of a set of poems from Lyn Hejinian's The Unfollowing, which puts a positive spin on the association of old age with childhood. a trope that is often deployed to infantilize and disenfranchize older people. By contrast, Hejinian uses it to highlight life's openness and contigency. Taking a cue from the poet, I will mobilize the notion of "the old child" to explore questions like: do we get less creative as we age? Are we born with certain talents and/or do we keep acquiring and developing them later in life? What obstacles get in the way of the expression of our multiple valences as we get older? We will survey the latest research on the epigenetic development of giftedness across the life span, dwell on the lives of exemplary polymaths and late bloomers and discuss how these matters relate to the topics of labor division, meritocracy and leisure.

The rapid growth in consumption of bottled water across the globe has drawn attention of policy makers and academicians alike. However, its consumption practices have been examined primarily in the context of industrialized countries. Drawing on studies of Science, Technology and Society, Public Understanding of Science, and institutions, this article explores the nuances of the consumption conundrum of bottled water in India. This mixed method study relies on data collected through surveys and ethnography of consumption practices at selected sites in Delhi. We find reasons for bottled water consumption to vary with the site of consumption. Although the notions of “purity” and “scarcity” drive consumption behavior, these attributes are far from being objective. Rather, they are shaped by a complex mix of sociocultural factors, public understanding of science, and trust on various institutional mechanisms of water provisioning.

""She is best known for her curve, the witch of Agnesi, which appears in almost all high school and undergraduate math books. She was a child prodigy who frequented the salon circuit, discussing mathematics, philosophy, history, and music in multiple languages. She wrote one of the first vernacular textbooks on calculus and was appointed chair of mathematics at the university in Bologna. In later years, however, she became a prominent figure within the Catholic Enlightenment, gave up the academic world, and devoted herself to the poor, the sick, the hungry, and the homeless. Indeed, the life of Maria Agnesi reveals a complex and enigmatic figure—one of the most fascinating characters in the history of mathematics.

Using newly discovered archival documents, Massimo Mazzotti reconstructs the wide spectrum of Agnesi's social experience and examines her relationships to various traditions—religious, political, social, and mathematical. This meticulous study shows how she and her fellow Enlightenment Catholics modified tradition in an effort to reconcile aspects of modern philosophy and science with traditional morality and theology.

Mazzotti's original and provocative investigation is also the first targeted study of the Catholic Enlightenment and its influence on modern science. He argues that Agnesi's life is the perfect lens through which we can gain a greater understanding of mid-eighteenth-century cultural trends in continental Europe.

Reviews:

The overall result is micro-history at its best, and a history of mathematics that is narrated, as it always should be, through the broader history of the people and places that made this particular science what it is.

(J.B. Shank The Mathematical Intelligencer)

Mazzotti's text is many things: well written, historically detailed, and descriptive. What stands out is his depiction of Maria Gaetana Agnesi as humble, kind, and mathematically talented.

(Kathleen A. Acker, Ph.D. Convergence)

A welcome contribution to both an understanding of Maria Agnesi and life in the 1700s.

(Choice)

A nuanced and well-documented historical narrative that restores to us a key personage in eighteenth-century science and spirituality, combining cultural and political history with the history of the family.

(Brendan Dooley Catholic Historical Review)

Mazzotti's book succeeds admirably in pushing beyond this summary judgment—the same that judges her curve 'insignificant'—to find in Agnesi's approach to mathematics a way to open a whole world of eighteenth- century life and thought that supported her choices.

(Joan L. Richards Isis)

Mazzotti’s account of the rise and fall of a relatively non-gendered intellectual environment in the early eighteenth century thus sheds light on a rare instance in which the Catholic Church actually advocated women’s equality. The strangeness of that phenomenon alone renders his work an interesting addition to the history of science.

(Josipa G. Petrunic British Journal for the History of Science)

This book is both a life and a times; it will have many readers.

(Dorinda Outram American Historical Review)

Mazzotti's treatment of her is by far the most sophisticated biography that we have of this fascinating woman... His book is a cultural history of mathematics at its best.

(Paula Findlen Historia Mathematica)""

What happened, in the years leading up to Valentine's Day 2014, that made a canister of nuclear waste burst open and spew out fire underground at a US facility for the long-term disposal of radioactive military waste? According to one widely publicized scenario, a simple run-of-the-mill typo led to organic kitty litter mistakenly being used to soak up liquid in the drum instead of another kind of absorbent material. This ultimately led to a reaction that made heat and pressure build up in the drum, causing it to erupt. But was that "simple" clerical error symptomatic of a much deeper, system-wide problem-- involving a US Energy Department plan to rush the pace of nuclear waste disposal? What were the political, social, and financial elements involved in making Los Alamos' waste drum #68660 erupt that February night? What can be done to prevent similar accidents – which can have price tags of hundreds of millions of dollars or more – from happening again in the future? A cultural anthropologist spent 10 weeks onsite after the event, logging 43 interviews and trying to answer these questions. Here is what he found.

Synonyms - Introduction - History of the Concept - Aims and Limits of Disciplinary Research - Innovations: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries - Interdisciplinary Epistemology: The Need for ID Models - Organizing Interdisciplinary Research Teams - Evaluating Interdisciplinary Research - Conclusion and Future Directions - Cross-References - References

علم با مابعدالطبیعه‌- ‌متافیزیک چه نسبتی دارد؟ آیا علم مدرن درباره متافیزیک سکوت می‌کند؟ درباره شبه‌علم چطور؟ آیا میان علم و شبه‌علم نیز نسبتی برقرار است؟ برای پاسخ به پرسش‌های بالا و تبیین نسبت یا موضِع هریک از این حوزه‌ها به یکدیگر، ابتدا باید به اجمال از واژه‌‌های مابعدالطبیعه یا متافیزیک، علم و شبه‌علم تعاریفی عملیاتی ارائه دهیم.

یعنی بگوییم مقصودمان از این واژه ها در این متن چیست و آن را در چه معنایی به کار می بریم. پیش از شروع باید یادآور شویم مسائلی مانند چیستی علم و چیستی متافیزیک از مهم ترین مسائل فلسفه علم به طور خاص و فلسفه به طور عام است که درباره آن تاکنون هزاران مقاله و کتاب منتشر شده و همین حالا نیز در حال نگارش است. در این نوشتار تعاریف ارائه شده بسیار مختصر و دم دستی هستند.

This article highlights an intersection between the science fiction of
Neal Stephenson and the science philosophy of Michel Serres. As
two of the most prolific contemporary advocates of the
communication between literature and science, Serres and
Stephenson employ permutations of the trickster figure as a
potent lens on the epistemological transformations that occur
when boundaries are crossed and static systems perturbed.
Allegorizing the birth of science and rational consciousness as the
intervention of a trickster, Stephenson finds in hackers and
couriers the same generative force that Serres associates with the
Greek god Hermes and the figure of the parasite. With particular
attention to Stephenson’s postcyberpunk novel Snow Crash (1992)
and Serres’ Hermes series (1969–1980), the concept of the trickster
will be explored as both a personification of the kinship between
creation mythologies, information theory, anthropology, and
modern physics and as the template for a productive
transdisciplinary mode of cultural inquiry.

Qigong—a regimen of body, breath, and mental training exercises—was one of the most widespread cultural and religious movements of late-twentieth-century urban China. The practice was promoted by senior Communist Party leaders as a uniquely Chinese healing tradition and as a harbinger of a new scientific revolution, yet the movement’s mass popularity and the almost religious devotion of its followers led to its ruthless suppression.

In this absorbing and revealing book, David A. Palmer relies on a combination of historical, anthropological, and sociological perspectives to describe the spread of the qigong craze and its reflection of key trends that have shaped China since 1949, including the search for a national identity and an emphasis on the absolute authority of science. Qigong offered the promise of an all-powerful technology of the body rooted in the mysteries of Chinese culture. However, after 1995 the scientific underpinnings of qigong would come under attack, its leaders denounced as charlatans, and its networks of followers, notably Falungong, suppressed as “evil cults”.

According to Palmer, the success of the movement proves that a hugely important religious dimension not only survived under the CCP, but was actively fostered, if not created, by high-ranking party members. Tracing the complex relationships among the masters, officials, scientists, practitioners, and ideologues involved in qigong, Palmer opens a fascinating window on the transformation of Chinese tradition as it evolved along with the Chinese state. As he brilliantly demonstrates, the rise and collapse of the qigong movement is key to understanding the politics and culture of post-Mao society.

Author version. Please cite final published version available here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/zygo.12766

As Alister McGrath has argued across a lifetime of work, we need to approach the binaries that have been handed down to us—personal/academic, emotional/intellectual, secular/religious—with a healthy skepticism toward the integrity of their boundaries, attending instead to the contact zones between them. This article connects McGrath's body of work to what I call “cogency theory,” an approach that rejects the thinking/feeling binary itself. It begins with a survey of how McGrath understands rationality—not only as multiple, but as defined, in meaningful ways, by feeling. This is illustrated by reexamining McGrath's controversy with Richard Dawkins, analyzing their debate in terms of how the argument itself comes to feel. This new paradigm allows us to supersede petty antagonisms built into contemporary culture—like the presumed science–religion conflict—and refocus on overarching concerns like the climate crisis. The article concludes with a question about the extent to which beliefs and “worldviews” define how we—either as groups or individuals—can make or unmake ecological disaster.

There has been substantial work done interpreting the descriptive texts from the early-modern encounters of Portuguese colonizers in Brazil. The interpretations have had major difficulty with significant elements of the texts, which the interpreters found strange from the perspective of their particular contexts. For the most part, they dismiss these elements. It is suggested here that these elements are evidence of a specific style of thinking for coming to terms with nature in the New World. The point is not that the corpus in question can be reduced to this style of thinking. There might be other styles to be identified in the corpus. But this style of thinking gives shape to the corpus to a considerable measure. Moreover, it enables one to make sense of the most strange and puzzling passages of the corpus, such as the following one, describing a " water tree " supposedly found at the time in Bahia: " in its branches it has holes of the length of an arm, which are full of water… the origin of which is unknown… and it happens that 100 souls come to it, and they are all protected, [being able to] drink and wash everything they want, and there is never water shortage " (Cardim, 1925: 67)...

My husband and I have been faithfully married for years, and we are shocked by what we read in your columns. As black vultures, we engage in none of the revolting practices you advocate so regularly, and we don't think anyone else should either. We suggest you champion fidelity or shut up.

By critically examining the works of Jurgen Habermas and Michel Foucault, this book undertakes a critique of science as a social institution in order to illuminate the effects of scientific reason as it migrates from its specialized institutions into society. Examining the shifting relations between science and other social institutions, discourses and power, it explores how these effects extend throughout the entire social body. The book thus adopts the stance of a philosophical critique both directed towards science and, at the same time, shaped by, and responsive to it. Whilst acknowledging the emancipatory possibilities of science, it highlights the ways in which the authority granted to science can truncate other regions of rationality and so narrow or shift the scope of what can count as reality. Arguing for a non-reductive, liberal scientific naturalism that sees science as one form of rationality amongst others, the book suggests possibilities for thought and action beyond scientific knowledge. By analysing the works of Foucault and Habermas in terms of their social, political, and historical contexts it reveals the two thinkers as linked by a commitment to the Enlightenment tradition and its emancipatory telos. It argues that they can be seen as representing two distinct moments within the context of modern reflexive rationality. Habermas seeks to discover what is stable, universal, and in a sense necessary, while Foucault seeks to transform subjectivity by problematising whatever is presented as stable, universal, and necessary. The significant differences between the two are seen to result from Foucault’s radicalization of the Enlightenment tradition, a radicalization which is, at the same time, implicit within the Enlightenment project itself.

El origen y la historia de la vida son parte de toda concepción del mundo y por ese motivo, la teoría de la evolución biológica de Charles Darwin es necesaria en cualquier nivel educativo y tiene por ello una gran relevancia social. La teoría de la evolución integra el conocimiento biológico y tiene aplicaciones en cualquier campo relacionado con los seres vivos lo que incluye a la medicina. Sin embargo, la teoría de la evolución en sus detalles se muestra difícil, confusa y hasta contradictoria pero esto no debe decepcionarnos porque la teoría de la evolución es, como todo en la ciencia, un sistema de conocimientos inacabado que evoluciona y no un cuerpo de creencias en algo tan perfecto como irreal. Se especula que Carl N. Linaeus tal vez intuyó la teoría de la evolución biológica desde la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII al desarrollar su sistema de clasificación natural y que la abandonó asustado de sus consecuencias contra la teología y el mundo en que él vivía. La teoría de la evolución empezó a conformarse desde principios del siglo XIX durante un brillante siglo de integración del conocimiento y en la que se redimensionó al hombre y al mundo entero con teorías sobre la unidad universal de la estructura de la materia (p.ej. Dalton) y la transformación de la energía (p.ej. Lavoisier, Carnot, Kelvin), la unidad de la estructura y función de los seres vivos (p.ej. Schleiden, Schwann, Bernard), el origen natural del sistema solar y la Tierra (p.ej. Kant, Laplace), la evolución de nuestro planeta (p.ej. Hutton, Lyell), la evolución de las sociedades (p.ej. Diderot, Rousseau, Marx, Engels), la evolución de las especies (p.ej. Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace) y por lo tanto la evolución de la especie humana (p.ej. Darwin). Ante las revoluciones científicas y humanistas de fines del siglo XVIII y el siglo XIX, el mundo se vio y concibió con ojos y mentalidades nuevas pero se utilizó también de manera ciega e irracional. Por ejemplo, las representaciones de cetáceos como monstruos abundan en la

L’étude se structure en quatre parties qui visent chacune à prendre du recul sur la recherche participative depuis une perspective propre.

La première partie s’attache à resituer les recherches participatives d’un point de vue historique. Il s’agit de rappeler que les institutions républicaines ont été fondées sur les principes de délégation et de représentation en opposition franche aux principes de participation contenus dans les idéaux démocratiques. Cela permet d’expliquer pourquoi les grands corps administratifs et techniques de l’État restent totalement dépourvus d’organes et d’expertise en matière de participation jusque dans les années 1970. Le développement de l’offre publique de participation ne débute qu’à partir des années 1980 et s’accompagne d’une abondante littérature théorique et empirique sur la question. Ces recherches sur la participation fournissent un matériel précieux pour analyser la probité des dispositifs participatifs, qui s’avèrent souvent prolonger les trahisons démocratiques des systèmes représentatifs qu’ils prétendaient renforcer. Enfin, un retour sur les expériences fondatrices qui servent généralement de référence aux démarches participatives dans les sciences permet de questionner les formes et les finalités de la recherche participative.

La deuxième partie s’intéresse à la façon que nous avons de nous représenter les sciences et le changement scientifique, et à l’influence que ces représentations ont sur la manière dont nous envisageons la recherche participative. Car, malgré le développement d’une réflexion nouvelle sur les sciences depuis les années 1970, le milieu académique demeure assez largement attachée à une représentation idéalisée des sciences. Celle-ci porte à envisager la recherche participative avec une méfiance exagérée, à privilégier des questions d’encadrement scientifique, de contrôle procédural, et à envisager les formes possibles de l’implication citoyenne dans la recherche de manière restreinte. À l’inverse, le changement de représentation offert par les approches historiques et sociologiques des sciences permet de re-contextualiser les pratiques scientifiques et d’appréhender de manière plus pragmatique les recherches participatives. 

La troisième partie vise à considérer les opportunités d’évolution des sciences apportées par les démarches participatives. En effet, certaines formes participatives de la recherche offrent d’intéressantes  sorties du cadre de la recherche conventionnelle en développant d’autres modes d’exploration et de production de connaissance. Ces approches centrées sur la construction d’un processus collectif de recherche nous amènent à reconsidérer la place du chercheur académique et à ré-envisager en profondeur notre conception des savoirs. Plus largement, elles ouvrent à considérer le potentiel d’une organisation et d’une gestion démocratique des sciences et à remettre en cause le principe de délégation exclusive du pouvoir de décision aux cercles des chercheurs, des décideurs politiques et des industriels.

Enfin la quatrième partie reprend les conclusions du séminaire de muséologie en vue, d’une part, de questionner notre conception de la culture depuis la question de la participation citoyenne et, d’autre part d’interroger les limites de la conception de la recherche culturelle depuis la perspective des expériences de développement communautaire et territorial.

O tema desta pesquisa diz respeito ao problema da demarcação entre ciência e não-ciência, proposto no âmbito da filosofia da ciência anglo-saxã do século XX. O estudo do caso da astrologia mostra-se relevante para enriquecer essa discussão demarcatória e revelar suas dificuldades, considerando-se que vários filósofos da ciência, como Popper, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Thagard e Laudan, usaram a astrologia como exemplo ao tentar dar conta do problema da demarcação ou problematizar essa questão. O objetivo desta dissertação é, portanto, esclarecer um pouco mais o problema da demarcação da ciência, analisando especialmente o caso da astrologia, e examinar a relevância dessa questão no contexto atual dos estudos sobre a ciência. Com essa inserção no diálogo epistemológico contemporâneo, pretende-se contribuir para um melhor entendimento não só do que é ciência e de quais são suas fronteiras, mas também para a construção de uma visão mais precisa e menos preconceituosa da astrologia.

This research concerns with the demarcation problem which was proposed by the Anglo-Saxon philosophy of science in the twentieth century. Astrology as a case study is relevant to enrich this debate and to reveal its dificulties since various philosophers of science – as Popper, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Thagard, and Laudan – have used astrology as an example to account for demarcation problem or to question it. Therefore the goal of this dissertation is to clarify a little bit more the problem of distinguishing science from non-science, in particular the case of astrology, and to examine the pertinence of this discussion in the current context of the science studies. This survey is inserted into the contemporary epistemological dialogue and it intends to contribute to a better understanding of what is science and which are your frontiers, as well to give a more precise and less prejudicing view of astrology.

In this thesis, I argue that a new, ambitious variety of literary utopia, which I call an ecosystem utopia, has developed over the past forty years, chiefly in science fiction and fantasy. My primary examples are Paul McAuley’s novels The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun. An ecosystem utopia portrays a dynamic network of societies in a text’s fictional time and space. Like a traditional utopia, it explores the structure and functioning of individual utopias, and like the critical utopia, their flaws and ambiguities. Sociopolitically complex, it explores threads of influence, alliance, conflict, exploitation, and dominance within and between multiple societies. To analyze such a complex system, I have created a hybrid methodology, econet criticism, which blends ecology with a variant of Actor-Network Theory to analyze individual utopias and trace their interactions. This is an exploratory work, a first step toward developing a new way of conceiving and analyzing utopia.

Este año festejamos el bicentenario del nacimiento de Charles Darwin y con él, uno de los más importantes y valientes logros del pensamiento humano, la teoría de la evolución biológica. El origen y la historia de la vida son parte de toda cosmovisión y por ello, la teoría darwinista se ha convertido en un elemento fundamental de cualquier forma y nivel de educación científica y ha adquirido así enorme relevancia social. La teoría de la evolución integra el conocimiento biológico y tiene aplicaciones en cualquier campo relacionado con los seres vivos como la conservación de la biosfera, la agricultura, la cría de animales y la medicina. Es común que cuando por primera vez se comprenden los principios básicos de la teoría de Darwin, de súbito se aprecia en forma intensa la belleza de la vida en nuestro planeta, se siente uno mismo parte íntima de la naturaleza y se experimenta una liberación total de cuerpo, mente y espíritu. La teoría de la evolución se nos aparece así como un poema o un árbol fraterno, pero conforme se estudia en sus detalles y se recorren sus proclamadas vías integradoras de la biología, el andamiaje científico formal se muestra difícil, confuso e incluso contradictorio, limitado, imperfecto y con mucho por resolver. Por este motivo, la teoría de la evolución es atacada continuamente por todas las fuerzas del oscurantismo y sus vulgarizadores a menudo la hacen tropezar ante la sociedad.

Tatalakayin ng papel na ito ang mga nakaraang naratibo sa mga sakuna na dulot ng kalikasan sa pamamagitan ng pagtingin sa mga diskurso ng siyensiya. Titingnan din kung papaano naisasainstitusyon ang mga sakunang ito sa Filipinas noong panahon ng mga Amerikano. Pagkaraan, susuriin kung paano binigyang kahulugan ng pamahalaan ang mga ito. Nakatanim sa mga diskursong ito ang mga naratibo ng mga sakuna na dulot ng kalikasan–kung ano ang gagawin kapag may sakuna, kung bakit nangyayari ang mga ito, at kung sino ang dapat sisihin kaugnay nito. Mas madaling mauunawaan ang mga sakuna kung susuriin ang mga diskurso dahil binibigyan nito ng kahulugan ang mga salik pangkasaysayan at ang paraan kung paanong ang mga kahulugang ito ay naisasalin sa katotohanan.

New materialism is not a clear-cut set of theses, or a firmly unified school of thought. It crosses discourses and theoretical commitments, but, as its name indicates, seems consistently to oppose ‘new’ materialism to an older form, or perhaps several older forms of this doctrine. The latter are typically associated with ‘mechanistic’ standpoints, with ‘reductionism’, with the denial of life, agency, embodiment, meaning, value … What happens when a historian of materialism confronts such claims? In what follows, I reflect on the historical problems which affect such theoretical positionings. It is not that there is no need to distinguish passive from active forms of materialism, or single out a focus on organic life. But that a distinction between ‘new and old’ might not be the way to capture such crucial theoretical and historical features.

This paper is based on a current study of the growing police use of the epistemic authority of molecular biology for the identification of criminal suspects in support of crime investigation. It discusses the development of DNA profiling and the establishment and development of the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD) as an instance of the 'scientification of police work' (Ericson and Shearing 1986) in which the police uses of science and technology have a recursive effect on their future development. The NDNAD, owned by the Association of Chief Police Officers of England and Wales, is the first of its kind in the world and currently contains the genetic profiles of more than 2 million people. The paper provides a framework for the examination of this sociotechnical innovation, begins to tease out the dense and compact history of the database and accounts for the way in which changes and developments across disparate scientific, governmental and policing contexts, have all contributed to the range of uses to which it is put.

The current global crisis in society, economy and politics is implicitly affecting Science Education pointing towards a redefinition of its role vis-à-vis the neoliberal, neoconservative and technocratic offensive.
Derek Hodson (1999, 2004, 2010) has stressed the necessity for a renewed Science Education beyond the STS paradigm, oriented towards sociopolitical action and Angela Calabrese-Barton has underlined the value of a democratic Science Education promoting social justice (Barton, 2003; Barton and Upadhyay, 2010; Basu and Barton, 2010).
In this paper, Critical Science Education is presented as an alternative pedagogical approach which favours the participation of ethnic, racial and religious minorities in the scientific endeavour while at the same time promotes a stance against racism, discrimination and generally every form of oppression. It is furthermore interdisciplinary and transformative, in the sense that it pursuits not only the empowerment of the student but the radical transformation of the social relations as well.
Critical Science Education aligns with the STS and STSE (Science-Technology-Society-Environment) traditions but goes further into incorporating the experiences of the radical teacher’s movement and the pioneering attempts for radical science pedagogy (Skordoulis, 2009). For Critical Science Education the role of the teacher is crucial, considering the latter as a “transformative intellectual” and a public, critical thinker rather than just a transmitter of scientific knowledge.
Finally, this paper discusses the various approaches to Critical Science Education, focusing on their theoretical background as well as on their foundational and core attributes. It also provides an overview of some of the global endeavours inside and outside classroom which aim towards the infusion of criticality in Science Education.

چکيده. افسانه‌های آرام‌بخش اثری پژوهشی است از سعید زیباکلام، استاد فلسفه، که به تازگی (در بهار 1396) منتشر شده است. این اثر از هشت رسالۀ مستقل از یکدیگر با عناوین ذیل، به ترتیب طبع، تشکیل شده است: «افسانۀ نگرش برون‌دینی آزاد»، «افسانۀ عقلانیت جهانشمول»، «افسانۀ آزاداندیشی»، «افسانۀ ماهیت استدلال»، «افسانۀ توصیۀ [قرآن] به تعقل»، « افسانۀ بی‌طرفی»، «افسانۀ انتظار بشر از دین»، و «افسانه‌هایی دربارۀ نظریه و نظریه‌سازی». مضامین رساله‌ها مصادیقی از برخی مقبولات عامه، خصوصاً در عرف فلسفی، را مورد تأمل قرار داده و (امکان) تحقق آن‌ها یا وجود معنای واحد فراگیری را برایشان نفی می‌کند. نوشتار حاضر به مرور خطوط کلی هریک از رساله‌ها، قدری زمینه‌مندکردن مفاد آن‌ها، اشاره به برخی چالش‌هایی که برمی‌انگیزانند و همچنین بیان ملاحظاتی ارزیابانه و انتقادی می‌پردازد. داوری نهایی این نوشتار آن است که افسانه‌های آرام‌بخش از جدی‌ترین آثار فکری/فلسفی است که در دهه‌های اخیر به زبان فارسی نگاشته و منتشر شده و غور متأملانه در آن برای آگاهی از آخرین وضعیت خط مقدم پیشروی فکر ایرانی-اسلامی ضروری است.

Abstract. Afsāniʹhā-yi Ārāmʹbakhsh (‘Tranquilizing Myths’) is a newly published (Spring 1396 Sh./ 2017) research work by the contemporary Iranian philosopher Saeid Zibakalam. It is composed of eight essays entitled, respectively, “The myth of free irreligious outlook”, “The myth of the universal Rationality”, “The myth of free-thinking”, “The myth of the Nature of Argument”, “The myth of the [Quranic] advice for ratiocination”, “The myth of impartiality”, “The myth of humanity’s  expectations from religion”, and “Some myths concerning theory and theory-construction”. A number of prevalent ideas, especially among the philosophers, are investigated in the essays to show that each of them is either entirely fictitious or lack a widely accepted, unique meaning. The present piece of writing is devoted to a general review of the work, some contextualizations of its content, hints to various challenges that it rises, and also several critical points. My overall assessment is that the Afsāniʹhā-yi Ārāmʹbakhsh is one of the most serious intellectual/ philosophical works in Persian that has appeared in recent decades, and a careful engagement with it is strongly recommended for anyone who wants to be acquainted with the latest development of Irano-Islamic thought in its frontline.

The interlacing of pre- and postmodern genres—mythology and dystopian science fiction—in Larissa Lai’s Salt Fish Girl (2002) formally enacts the novel’s meditation on genetic splicing and the boundaries of the individual human.  This article examines the novel’s transpositional origin stories through a framework I call “narrative symbiogenesis,” which draws from posthumanism, science fiction studies, and Asian American studies.  Symbiogenesis, a theory articulated by evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, refers to a specific type of symbiosis (long-term relationships between different species) that is the primary mechanism that generates new organs, tissues, and even species.  Building off Margulis’s deconstruction of an essential human organism, narrative symbiogenesis demands a concomitant reassessment of the language of singular organicity, specifically in relation to the fraught genres of origin stories and developmental narratives.  This reconsideration is particularly necessary for Asian American literature, given that logics of “biological” racial difference persist on the molecular scale even in a so-called “postracial” era.  In contradistinction, I argue the version of the human species that Salt Fish Girl presents is one of continual mutation and contamination—and also one of deep interconnectivity.  Reading Lai’s experimental text through narrative symbiogenesis shows Salt Fish Girl is not merely postmodern pastiche, but embodies a generic form that makes visible the process of its syncretic creation.

Анализ тенденций развития экономики последних лет свидетельствует о том, что собственность на недвижимость и операции с ней, такие как купля-продажа, ипотека, налогообложение, требуют определения стоимости недвижимого имущества. Следует отметить, что оценочная деятельность при этом является тем видом деятельности, которая обслуживает рынок недвижимости. Недвижимое имущество может сыграть значительную роль в экономике Республики Беларусь в том случае, если будет существовать эффективный рынок для сделок с ним.

The scientific discipline as the primary unit of internal differentiation of science is an invention of nineteenth century society. There exists a long semantic prehistory of disciplina as a term for the ordering of knowledge for purposes of instruction in schools and universities. But, only the nineteenth century establishes real disciplinary communication systems. They are based on specialization of scientists, on role differentiation in the organizations of science, the emergence of standard forms of scientific publication and the rise of the research imperative which demands an incessant search for novelties. All these structural changes coalesce to the disciplinary community as a new type of communication system in science. After having been established, the discipline func¬tions as the unit of structure formation in the social system of science; in systems of higher education, as subject domain for teaching and learning in schools; and finally as designation of occupational and professional roles. Although processes of differentiation of science have been going on ever since, the scientific discipline as a basic unit of structure formation is stabilized by these plural roles in different functional contexts of modern society. Finally, each individual discipline is embedded into an internal environment of other disciplines. The continuous mutual observation and interaction of these disciplines is the most important factor in the dynamics of modern science.

This essay investigates the rhetoric surrounding the appearance of the concept of the
infinitesimal in the seventeenth-century Calculus of Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz. Although historians often have positioned rhetoric as a supplemental
discipline, this essay shows that rhetoric is the “material” out of which a new and
powerful mathematical system emerges. At the height of empiricism, the infinitesimal,
thought by Newton and Leibniz to be evanescent or nascent, made available no recourse to empirical or geometric verification. Instead, the infinitesimal found its “substance” in the rhetorical arguments surrounding it, which ultimately precipitated an epistemic shift in scientific and mathematical practice.

Du structuralisme à la philosophie postmoderne, de la déconstruction au systémisme, de Claude Lévi-Strauss à Jacques Lacan, de Gilles Deleuze à Jean-François Lyotard, une bonne part de la pensée européenne des cinquante dernières années a été souterrainement influencée par un ensemble de présupposés théoriques élaborés dans l'immédiat après-guerre avec la naissance de la cybernétique. Ce « paradigme cybernétique », dont l'apparition est historiquement datée, se fondait sur une toute nouvelle conception de l'humain et de la société en rupture avec l'héritage humaniste de la modernité. En général ignorée, ou passée sous silence, cette influence a profondément marqué le paysage intellectuel contemporain. C'est ce que l'auteur de ce livre, sociologue à l'université de Montréal, met en évidence dans cet essai. Il s'agit de reconstituer, avec précision, la généalogie d'un paradigme qui fut et demeure très influent, aussi bien sur le vieux continent qu'outre-Atlantique. À ce titre, le travail de Céline Lafontaine apparaît comme une contribution essentielle autant que neuve au débat contemporain. En replaçant dans son contexte historique l'apparition de ce qu'on appelle la postmodernité, cet essai surprendra sans doute. C'est néanmoins un apport dont il sera désormais difficile de ne pas tenir compte, d'autant plus qu'il apporte un éclairage neuf sur l'imaginaire des technosciences.

If, as Jacques Rancière argues, “politics is an intervention into the visible,” is it possible that the current “bloom” of jellyfish images opens up space for gelata and other non-mammalian sea creatures to provoke posthuman modes of environmental concern? Do these watery creatures, barely distinguishable
from their surroundings, suggest the need for a more aquatic environmentalism to emerge, not only from a global mapping of toxic flows and the ravages of industrial extractions but also from some scarcely possible engagement with the heretofore unknown and still barely known if not potentially unknowable forms of life that inhabit the depths?

How much of philosophical, scientific, and political thought is caught up with the idea of continuity? What if it were otherwise? This paper experiments with the disruption of continuity. The reader is invited to participate in a performance of spacetime (re)configurings that are more akin to how electrons experience the world than any journey narrated though rhetorical forms that presume actors move along trajectories across a stage of spacetime (often called history). The electron is here invoked as our host, an interesting body to inhabit (not in order to inspire contemplation of flat-footed analogies between 'macro' and 'micro' worlds, concepts that already presume a given spatial scale), but a way of thinking with and through dis/continuity -a dis/orienting experience of the dis/jointedness of time and space, entanglements of here and there, now and then, that is, a ghostly sense of dis/continuity, a quantum dis/continuity. There is no overarching sense of temporality, of continuity, in place. Each scene diffracts various temporalities within and across the field of spacetimemattering. Scenes never rest, but are reconfigured within, dispersed across, and threaded through one another. The hope is that what comes across in this dis/jointed movement is a felt sense of différance, of intra-activity, of Time: 09:19am drt081.tex