Book Description
Drawing from a power elite perspective and the latest empirical data, Domhoff’s classic text is an invaluable tool for teaching students about how power operates in U.S. society. Domhoff argues that the owners and top-level managers in large income-producing properties are far and away the dominant figures in the U.S. Their corporations, banks, and agribusinesses come together as a corporate community that dominates the federal government in Washington and their real estate, construction, and land development companies form growth coalitions that dominate most local governments. By providing empirical evidence for his argument, Domhoff encourages students to think critically about the power structure in American society and its implications for our democracy.
Customer Reviews:
No significant diff. between 4th and 5th edition.......2007-08-23
I would have given this a 5 star except there is no big difference between this edition and the previous one. We use this book in our econ class, students are told it's ok to buy either edition.
An Indispensable Exposé on How Our Democracy REALLY Works!.......2006-05-13
Professor Domhoff poses (and answers) these questions:
- Is there a wealthy class in America? If so, do they connect in any empirical way with huge corporations, financial institutions, and large agribusinesses?
- How can a highly competitive group of corporate leaders cooperate enough to work their common will in the political and policy arenas?
- How is it possible for these groups to exert so much influence in a supposedly free and democratic society?
The answers to these questions are not secret, but neither are they everyday news. With the aid of sociological and empirical studies, Domhoff describes the extensive interlocking relationships between the very wealthy class, huge corporations, trade organizations, policy planning organizations, think tanks, and the many ways they influence (and even merge with) our government. After reading this book, one might wonder if the welfare of the common people is ever taken into account in government decisions. And that is the point. Indeed, Domhoff clearly demonstrates that most policy battles in government, though cloaked in rhetoric about the general welfare, are actually fights among different moneyed and powerful interests when their usual interrelationships and consensus building organizations (above) are unable to produce a united front.
For a focus on how corporate power has gained control in diverse policy areas in Congress, see recently published (5/1/06) Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government -- and How We Take It Back by David Sirota. With unusual clarity, Sirota's book also lays bare the myths and lies that corporations and bought-off politicians use to mask the self-serving nature of policies and to promote public acquiescence. Another excellent book, Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain by George Monbiot, underscores the worldwide nature of this problem.
This book also has an informative website at www.whorulesamerica.net.
Picks up the baton of C. Wright Mills.......2006-01-27
This is a tremendously well-written examination of the structure of power in America. It continues the ideas of Mills but with more of the empirical and less of the theoretical. A MUST-READ for anyone who claims to know how America is ruled. Simply stated--if this book doesn't get your blood boiling and move you to action then you have no right to complain about the present state of the American political system.
Essential reading to understand power in America.......2005-02-23
In this book, Domhoff investigates where the power lies in America. He defines the 3 indicators of power, 'Who Benefits', 'Who Governs', and 'Who Wins' as the basis for determining who holds power. At the end of Chapter 1, Domhoff briefly summarizes the main points of the book:
"Using membership network analysis, this book attempts to show there is a corporate community (Chapter 2) that is the basis for a social upper class (Chapter 3). This intertwined corporate community and social upper class have developed a policy-planning network (Chapter 4) and an opinion-shaping network (Chapter 5) that give them the means to win a majority of seats in the electoral process (Chapter 6) and to shape the policies of interest to them within the federal government (Chapter 7)."
The arguments made here are very well researched, with quantitative analysis of how corporate leaders are linked with each other through their common elite socialization and self-interests, corporate directorship positions, foundation trustee status, policy planning groups, and government positions.
Domhoff gives the subject of power an honest and insightful treatment. After reading this book, I can't imagine a more logical and convincing description of how the unequal distribution of power in America is maintained, and further consolidated. Given its $30 price tag for less than 300 page paperback, I'd check the library before buying this one. Still, highly recommended!
Book Description
The popular fantasy novel Tinker introduced the inventor-heroine of the same name, who lives in a near-future Pittsburgh, which shares an interdimensional border with the land of the elves. In this sequel, Wolf Who Rules, the elven noble whose destiny is intertwined with Tinker, finds himself besieged from all sides. Viceroy and head of the Wind Clan, he had been able to guarantee the safety of everyone in his realm, but faced with an oni invasion, he has had to call in royal troops and relinquish his monopoly of Pittsburgh, which is now entirely stranded on Elfhome. He now struggles to keep the peace between the humans, the newly arrived Stone Clan, the royal forces, a set of oni dragons, the half-oni children who see themselves as human, and the tengu trying to escape their oni enslavement. Meanwhile, Tinker strives to solve the mystery of a growing discontinuity in Turtle Creek. She's plagued with inexplicable nightmares that may hold the keys to Pittsburgh's future. The only clue from the Queen's oracle to help Tinker is a note with five English words on it: Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Oni, and dragons and tengu Â- oh my!
Customer Reviews:
Magical Mystery Tour, Part 2.......2007-03-29
The first book of this duology, Tinker, made me hunt up ALL of Wen Spencer's other works. The action and background are different than when Tink was human, and she seems more tentative in her new role as an elf, but naturally she comes through with flying colors (called dragons.) I admit without shame that I like books where the protagonist is successful. Don't give me dark tragedy and expect me to enjoy it; there's more than enough of that in the real world. If you liked Tinker, you will certainly enjoy this sequel.
Wishing I was Tinker...........2006-12-14
Tinker is the genius human turned elf who is just realizing the repercussions of her plan to stop the Oni from invading both Earth and Elfhome by the smashing of the interdimensional gates which tie the worlds together. Unfortunately her plan, while having been moderately successful, has stranded the city of Pittsburgh on the world of Elfhome. More than that Tinker has discovered a large discontinuity, an area which seems to be in flux between the three (or more) worlds.
Wolf Who Rules, also known as Windwolf, is the elf viceroy who has fallen in love with Tinker, changed her to elf so as not to lose her to her human frailties, and has made her his Domi. All too aware of his responsibilities Windwolf finds himself constantly deserting his new wife while she is still trying to adapt to her new world and is trying to put right the world altering damage she has caused.
Wolf Who Rules is a delightful follow-up to the story Tinker. In fact, I believe I may like this sequel even better than its predecessor. Windwolf and Tinker are constantly torn apart by their respective duties and obligations but even without knowing they seem to be in tune and foraging towards a common goal. Tinker is also confused by her feelings for her sekasha, Pony, although the other elves do not understand her very humanlike discomfort in these feelings.
Filled with action, adventure, science, fantasy and romance, Wolf Who Rules has it all. My only complaints is that in the rare parts where Windwolf and Tinker are actually together it seems like the emotions are carefully glossed over, as though the author was consciously trying to keep the emotional depth to as bare a minimum as possible. In contrast the scenes betweeen Pony and Tinker resonate with more emotional depth. I would definately recommend Wolf Who Rules to anybody with a taste to fantasy/sci-fi mixes.
The Infamous Tinker is BACK!.......2006-09-21
Wolf Who Rules is the second book in a series that starts with Tinker. Although not as innocent as Tinker, remember Tinker was a slave to the Oni, this book is just as fun as the first book. I hope book number 3 doesn't take 2-3 years to come out like Wolf Who Rules did, but it is well worth the wait. Like her husband Windwolf, in High Elf he is named Wolf Who Rules thus the title, Tinker is now an Elf. She thinks she has succesfully destroyed the gates between Earth, Elfhome the homeworld of the elves, and the Oni homeworld, but a disturbance outside Pittsburgh won't go away and apparently keeps a window open to the Oni homeworld. Tinker musts close this window while fending off Oni; Tengu, a subspecies created by the Oni that mixes human and crow genes and allows them to fly, the 3 Elflords of the Stone Clan who are brought in to put down the Oni invasion; and protect the human citizens of Pittsburgh from the Elves executing Oni left and right. Oh yes she must also fend off 2 dragons as well.
Wen Spencer creates a fascinating blend of Western Elvish Mythology and Japanese and Chinese Mythology with modern technology and magic. Her charcters are very well developed, the twists and turns of the plot are very unpredictable and the pace is very intense. Windwolf's turning the human teenager Tinker into an elf and then marrying her has created lots of complications in Tinker's life, and this 18 year old child geniuse's struggles to bring her life back under control is fun to watch. I am also enjoying the development of human and elven societies' rules and regulations to live with each other is just as fun to watch as the story of Windwolf and Tinker.
Loved it.......2006-09-13
I was not happy about waiting so long to get this sequel. I thought Tinker was fantastic and was looking forward to this one. Wolf Who Rules is obviously about Windwolf, although the story was not centered around him as you would expect. Tinker still played a large part of this story. Spencer basically moved from Windwolf to Tinker as the chapters changed.
What was great about this novel was that the action never stopped and the characters, especially Windwolf, became more vivid and well rounded, Tinker makes major mistakes that she regrets dearly, the reader gets to learn more about Tinker's parents, and Pony's back. Gawd, he sounds sexy!
I'd rather not give anything away, so you'll have to read to find out more. What I can say is I hope this is not the end of the series.
Wolf Rocks.......2006-08-10
I went into this novel expecting it to be centered on the Title Character. I wasn't far wrong, however the execution of this theory was unique. It certainly gave us a much deeper insight into Wolf Who Rules (aka Windwolf) psyche. But not by following his character the way Tinker (the novel) followed Tinker (the character.) Tinker, herself, was still the main vehicle of the novel as she is plunged into the mystical world of elven life. life tended to get in the way of the physics as she had to learn to understand the complex relationships between the castes and kin of the elves and to a bewildering extent the tengu as well, in addition to her own newly discovered familial (or perhaps I should say genetic) relations. Struggling to absorb the different aspects of her life and new physiology (expecially her new magical/mystical vulnerabilities through her transformed elven genetics), Tinker takes us on a organic ramble through the elven country-side of Pittsburg instead of the scientific race that we gasped through in the first novel.
All in all WWR's was a highly interesting look into Windwolf's life (the life of a domi on elfholme) through Tinker's eyes. Different in flavor from the novel "Tinker" but a solid and highly enjoyable sequel.
Book Description
Who governs the Islamic Republic of Iran? Who is a "reformer"? Who is a "hardliner"? What do those terms really mean? These questions have emerged as the central enigmas of Iranian politics since the victory of reformist candidate Mohammad Khatami in Iran's presidential elections in May 1997.
Successive electoral victories by Khatami and his political allies have raised expectations about the prospects for Iran's reform movement. But in a political system with myriad and overlapping centers of power, capturing the presidency and the parliament may not suffice. Deep policy differences among the various factions that constitute the "reform" movement, as well as the violent proclivities of its conservative "hardline" adversaries, may frustrate efforts to bring about peaceful change to Iran's political system and even spur a violent backlash by opponents. Clearly, the success of the reform movement—and the evolution of a more benign Iran less out of tune with U.S. interests—is by no means assured.
Who Rules Iran? analyzes the formal and informal power structures in the Islamic Republic and assesses both the future of the reform movement and the prospects for peaceful change in Iran. As U.S. policymakers begin their third decade of trying to avoid potential pitfalls and seize possible opportunities in formulating policy toward the Islamic Republic, this book will serve as an essential "guide to the perplexed."
Customer Reviews:
A ruling oligarchy.......2004-07-23
There is a minor shift in this new version of G. William Domhoff's magisterial analysis of the US power system.
He adds 'top-level managers' to the power elite, which is composed of the owners of large income-producing properties. He adds also one more question to the three ones quoted in his former book: who shines?
Those income-producing properties are, on the national level, big corporations, banks and agribusinesses and, locally, real estate, construction and land development companies.
The owners and top-level managers constitute at best 1 % of the US population and have an enormous share of all income and wealth in the US.
G. William Domhoff shows clinically how they defend their interests through a small cluster of people and institutions ( a social upper class, a corporate community and a policy-formation network). Individual members (the oligarchy) of the upper class and the corporate community are involved in the policy-formation network. See, as an example, the members of the president G.W. Bush government.
The power elite dominates the two major political parties and the federal government through a coalition of Republicans and rightist Southern Democrats.
Concerning the general public, G. Wiliam Domhoff remarks that it has little or no influence except in times of unpopular wars or domestic social upheavals. He sees no change in the actual situation and predicts that the corporate-conservative coalition is most likely to prevail for a long time.
G. William Domhoff's arguments are extremely powerful. Therefore, this book is an essential read for the comprehension of the political/economical functioning of the US power system.
Ruling class - hidebound thinking.......2001-07-18
A tedious and shrill book which supposes that as soon as you have achieved some measure of success and/or wealth, you join a "ruling class." The language is instructive, as the author is still working with European (and Marxist) models. Kings, Queens, Dukes, Viscounts must haunt his soul. Anyone with comfort is suddenly "ruling" and part of a "class."
This book should be covered in tie-dye.
Ignorance is Bliss.......2001-02-21
Words are simply inadequate. This is the best book I never read. Amen.
An X-ray Film of Our Society.......1999-10-07
Clearly shows how the American society works, exposes the control of the upper crust - and never slides into the swamp of conspiracy theorists. Every serious student of our society must read this book!
The truth about government not taught in civics class!.......1999-07-23
I have read the author's two previous versions, "Who Rules America" and "Who Rules America Now", the latter an update of the first. Now I can't wait to get the latest! Clear & concise presentation of de facto governing and power structures at all levels of government. A sane and rational alternative to conspiracy theorist ramblings, this book shows plainly how we the people are not in charge, who is, and how their methods of rule have been legitimized and, even subsidized with our tax dollars. Learn the truth about such not-for-profit think tanks as the Council on Foreign Relations (not as black as you may have heard from the paranoids, but just as powerful and collusive.) Also a great handbook for those who wish to engage local and state power structures for profit and power.
-David T. Darnell, Denver, Colorado
Book Description
This book considers the threats to free speech and online commerce posed by international goverment attempting to impose such territorial statutes and standards within cyberspace.
Average customer rating:
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Goddesses Who Rule
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Women's Studies
| Nonfiction
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General
| Religion & Spirituality
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Comparative Religion
| Religious Studies
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General
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| Religious Studies
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Goddesses
| New Age
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ASIN: 0195121317 |
Book Description
Goddesses often are labeled as one-dimensional forces of nature or fertility. In examining a number of goddesses whose primary role is sovereignty, this volume reveals the rich diversity of goddess traditions. Drawn from a variety of cultural and historical settings, the goddesses described here include Inanna of ancient Sumer; Oshun of Nigeria; and Cihuacoatl of pre-historical America.
Book Description
A reinterpretation of the origins of the colonial revolutionary movement, Who Shall Rule at Home? charts the changing nature of South Carolina's political culture from the end of King George's War in 1748 to the decision for independence in 1776. As he follows the colony's shifting political landscape, Jonathan Mercantini challenges the prevailing interpretation of South Carolina as a politically harmonious colonial entity. Examining a series of constitutional and political conflicts, he highlights the increasing tensions between local authorities and royal officials in both London and Charles Town--disputes that demonstrate the growing resistance by the colony's elite to imperial control. These disagreements are all the more striking in South Carolina, according to Mercantini, because the colony benefited considerably from its relationship with Great Britain.
Mercantini explains this rejection of British rule through the transformation of the "rights of Englishmen" into the "rights of Carolina Englishmen." He suggests that South Carolinians, accustomed to authority as slave masters, took the British idea that certain inalienable rights accompanied an English birthright and reinterpreted the concept in ways related to self-rule. These "rights of Carolina Englishmen" centered on local control of elections, representation, finances, and taxation.
In addition Mercantini details the strategies South Carolinians used to resist royal control, the most notable of which was a refusal to compromise. After 1748 South Carolina politics were not geared toward conciliation or compromise but an all-or-nothing strategy that Mercantini calls "brinkmanship." Such tactics culminated with a bold threat to shut down government operations and suspend all business with the royal governor rather than concede to the demands of political rivals. Mercantini concludes that brinkmanship reveals what high political principles South Carolina's leaders believed to be at stake in their conflicts with outside authorities and the lengths to which they were willing to go to resist external interference.
Book Description
Life turns out in ways you never expected.
The eighteen million women born in the first years of the baby boom grew up anticipating a life of rules--go to college, get married, have a family. But when the time came, the cultural, social and political tumult of the late 1960s catapulted them into options that no previous generation had even considered.
The Women Who Broke All the Rules is the first book to celebrate the ordinary but extraordinary women who made decisions that have changed every womans life. Against extreme odds and without role models, these women made unprecedented life choices--in marriage, childbearing, education and work. By breaking every rule in the good girl handbook, they defined new ways for adult women to live. You will recognize yourself, your family and your friends in these pages.
Customer Reviews:
DeBeauvoir and the torchbearers.......2000-05-16
Evans and Avis have started to reconstruct the last chapters of Simone DeBeauvoir's book "The Second Sex." When I first read DeBeauvoir's book in 1973 I was dazzled by her essays, particularly 'Situation and Character' and the 'Formative Years.' Still, I recall being disappointed by the chapter on the 'Independent Woman.' It puzzled me that she didn't seem to have much to say that was new, fresh or interesting, and I was hungry for that examination. Perhaps too, my American sensibility expected a kind of formula on how to proceed. In retrospect, I have reconciled that women had neither succeeded nor failed on a public stage long enough for DeBeauvoir to have invoked a deeper analysis. This book makes an important contribution in beginning to record and analyze stories from this transitional group that the authors so accurately call the torchbearer generation. I think other readers would enjoy this book as much as I did.
Torchbearers' Daughters: Flame- Throwers and Fire-Tenders.......2000-04-10
As the daughter of a true Torchbearer, I deeply appreciate the candor, humor, and professionalism with which this book analyzes these women's lives. So many books have been written in the "spirit" of celebrating all women and their achievements, but they seem to be long on sentiment and theory and short on real research. Evans and Avis carefully structured their research to include women's persepctives about all areas of their lives but also leave the reader a great deal of room to understand and infer what s/he will. I also agree that most Torchbearers do not take enough credit for their culture-changing actions and attitudes, and I truly look forward to the day when (hopefully) my daughter and I can watch a "History of Women's Empowerment" program, and I can say to her that her grandmother was a woman who broke all the rules. More than any other I have ever read (and, as a psych major, I have read many), this book explains my mother as a member of this generation in a way I never could understand before. Plus, I now know that she really was part of a movement that, not unlike the civil rights movement, was part personal and part political. It brought Bell Hook home to me for the first time, without quoting her once.
I think this book is a must-read for all daughters AND SONS of Torchbearer mothers.
Just a hint, though, to those TB's rushing immediately to Amazon.com: You raised these kids, you know they won't read it if YOU suggest it : ) ha ha
One final note: I came to Amazon.com today for the first time ever (although I have previously used many e-commerce sites) expressly to buy 10 copies of this book to mail to my other 20-something girlfriends. Hey gen-x'ers: it's really THAT good!
APPRECIATING THE WOMEN WHO CAME BEFORE US.......1999-09-01
REVIEW: The authors of WOMEN WHO BROKE ALL THE RULES illustrate the lives of women born during the baby boom era (1945-1955). A captivating story, read in a single sitting, about women who challenged existing social strictures by forging into professional fields previously closed to them. Most important for my generation to appreciate is the fact that they had to do so without the benefit of role models and mentors, which they now have become to those of us born in the 1960's. To hear how these ordinary yet exceptional women triumphed after immense struggles and conflicts they encountered in their lives, left me with a great sense of appreciation for what they went through personally, as well as,what they accomplished for women who have followed. This book should be required reading for both high schools and universities so that generations coming after the baby boom era can be reminded that the innumerable opportunities that exist today for women must not be taken for granted. Dr. Susan Evans and Dr. Joan Avis portray the lives of these women within the context of "Old Rules"--existing social constructs, and "New Truths"- the discoveries made when breaking the "Old Rules." This method perfectly illustrates the broad social impact of their individual acts of courage and their trail blazing spirits. The actions of these women literally forced society to think and act differently. I recommend and applaud this book and thank the women of the baby boom generation.
Must read for all women 45 to 55 and every man who loves one.......1999-08-05
What an incredibly well researched and well written book. For all of us who have struggled with living in a world different than the one we were brought up to live in, it really hits home and validates all those conflicting feelings that we have about who we are and what our roles are in today's world. And for the men who were raised by the same parents who raised us, and don't understand our struggle and why we aren't just like 'mom' this is a must read. And every marriage counselor who works with 'boomer' couples should read it, too.
A remarkable generation comes alive on all the pages!.......1999-08-02
The result of Evans and Avis's five-year collaboration is an extraordinary book, The Women who Broke all the Rules, containing stories based on ideas, motivations, and behaviors of 100 selected female representatives of the Torchbearer Generation (individuals born between 1945 and 1955). By utilizing an effective interview questionnaire, designed by the authors and provided in the Appendix, as well as by conducting extensive face-to-face interviews, Evans and Avis have accomplished a difficult task. They have successfully managed to combine four decades of thousands of childhood, adolescent, and adult memories into an enticing exploration of American social history.
Pleasantly surprising, these 100 Torchbearers are not easily recognized public figures, superstars, or celebrities. Instead, they may be readily distinguished as any one of our own trusted wives, older sisters, younger sisters, cousins, aunts, friends, and colleagues who have had to "reconcile their 1950s childhoods with their more liberated adult selves." Whether married, divorced, remarried, childless, with children, or invested in any other combination of personal realities, the self-made female heroes in this book are cleverly discussed within the concepts of "old rules" (e.g, "Your families' values, beliefs, and practices should be yours") or "new truths" (e.g., "Honor your traditions but act on what you think is right"). Understandable, engaging, and thought-provoking, this fine piece of work presents significant "choices" to think about and discuss with friends, lovers, or family members.
Book Description
What if something as seemingly academic as the so-called science wars were to determine how we live?
This eye-opening book reveals how little we've understood about the ongoing pitched battles between the sciences and the humanities--and how much may be at stake. James Brown's starting point is C. P. Snow's famous book, Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, which set the terms for the current debates. But that little book did much more than identify two new, opposing cultures, Brown contends: It also claimed that scientists are better qualified than nonscientists to solve political and social problems. In short, the true significance of Snow's treatise was its focus on the question of who should rule--a question that remains vexing, pressing, and politically explosive today.
In Who Rules in Science? Brown takes us through the various engagements in the science wars--from the infamous "Sokal affair" to angry confrontations over the nature of evidence, the possibility of objectivity, and the methods of science--to show how the contested terrain may be science, but the prize is political: Whoever wins the science wars will have an unprecedented influence on how we are governed.
Brown provides the most comprehensive and balanced assessment yet of the science wars. He separates the good arguments from the bad, and exposes the underlying message: Science and social justice are inextricably linked. His book is essential reading if we are to understand the forces making and remaking our world.
Customer Reviews:
"It Is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity".......2005-02-24
The above quote is the title of an essay by Michel De Montaigne written over 400 years ago. The author of "Who Rules in Science" would do well to read it.
As a senior citizen I enjoy reading about current affairs, culture, and science, and bought this book because I felt that I should learn more about the modern philosophers of science. Several people had written very comprehensive reviews of this book on the Amazon web site and gave it a high rating, so I assumed it must be worth a read. In hindsight, that was a big mistake.
James Brown, the author, is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. He states in his preface that "this book is an introduction-an opinionated introduction-to the issues (of who rules in science) for the general reader." The operative word here is "opinionated" and the non-operative words are "general reader."
Early in the book, he begins a discussion of the "Sokal Affair" which was a hoax perpetrated by the physicist, Alan Sokal, on the editors of the journal Social Text, in which he fooled them into publishing an article which, on the surface, appeared to be quite a piece of erudite writing but in reality was nothing but nonsense. If I had not already known what this was about, I would have had a hard time figuring out what he is talking about, because it is certainly not presented in a straight forward manner. His main purpose in bringing up the Sokal Affair is to show how easy it is to fool even supposedly very intelligent people, the unstated implication being that those fooled were somehow deceived because their views of the philosophy of science are wrong.
Some of the reviews at Amazon describe the content of the book in great detail, but in summary it is a discussion of the views of the "social constructivists" in science, who believe that there is a large personal and social impact on the way science gets done and interpreted, as opposed to the views of the "realists", who believe that reason and logic are the only tools which can create a scientific truth independent of human nature.
The author is firmly in the realist camp. To advance his views at the expense of his opponents he sets them up as straw dogs so that he can attack their ideas at his leisure. Even the few actual examples from science he uses are also selected to make it appear that his ideas and criticism are the only correct point of view.
When his argument seems weak, he does not hesitate to abandon reason and logic and resort to assertion, sarcasm, exaggeration, and snide remarks about his opponents' views. He will call an idea nonsense without explaining why, and call his opponents' thinking "silly", "absurd", or "unparalleled ignorance". It is hard to avoid the impression that like a religious fundamentalist, he regards his ideas as the only true religion for scientists.
The book is filled with quite a bit of philosophical jargon and references that the "general reader" would not know. Without any sense of irony, he himself notes that "jargon itself frustrates the average reader."
There are constant references to various "-isms" and "-ists" such as, "Realism embraces objectivity, but it is clear for instance that instrumentalists and verificationists, are also objectivists in the sense that social constructivists are not".
At one point, he complains that he finds someone's statements irritating because they have a habit of making major claims that are not explained or justified beyond citing some author. This is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
"Evidential reason" appears to be his God, and that this can exist somehow independent of the human mind that creates it. He believes and has faith in his objective rationality and therefore can use rationality to prove that it exists. Sort of Descartes, "I think, therefore I am."
There is a satirical program on Canadian television called "Air Farce". One of the frequent skits is called "The Confused Philosopher". The character in the skit keeps asking himself a series of questions that he never really will be able to answer. This image came to mind frequently as I was reading this book.
The last sections of the book on "The Democratization of Science" and "Science With a Social Agenda" are written in a more calm and reasonable manner. He is at his best when not attacking the views of others. He still insists, however, that values do not in any way determine the theories we come to believe in, but does concede that in practice this is difficult to sort out. In my own humble view, it would take some sort of a scientific God to be able to do this.
Brown's biggest problem is that the value bias he so highly condemns in others, is so highly evident in his own views that he becomes his own worst enemy.
Apparently the author has done very little reading in the neurosciences, sociobiology or psychology. In the bibliography there are no references to any works on the operation of the human brain and the amazing discoveries on how our senses work, how we learn and form memories, and what part nature and nurture play in developing the way we perceive and reason about the world. It seems to me that the research and writings of people like Steven Pinker, Antonio Damasio, E.O Wilson, Rita Carter, and John Searle are much more pertinent to the philosophy of science than many of the people the author has focused on attacking. Even Mark Twain in his book "What Is Man" had a much deeper understanding of the reality of the human condition than James Brown seems to have.
To be honest, it is probably the style and method of presentation that turned me off this book more than the content itself. I did learn the names of some of the important players in the philosophy of science and I now have to find an author who can clearly and objectively explain what the ideas of these people really are.
Democratising science.......2003-06-24
Some contend the conflict between the sciences and the humanities is behind us. Reading Brown's analysis on the one hand and the daily news on the other shows how mistaken this view is. This is a refreshing and perceptive examination of the topics encountered over education, workplace behaviour, health and environmental issues. In short, Brown asks what the role of science is in our lives and how should we consider it? While the so-called "science wars" may seem like a remote philosophical debate, Brown brings it home for us all. In his view, you, as a participant in society, have a role to play in what science ought to address. He is adamant, however, that how science is done should remain with those who understand the methods involved in seeking the truth, elusive as that concept might be.
Brown's reviews the famous "Sokal Hoax" in which a physicist scathingly exposed the limits of "postmodern" language and philosophy. He explains how the Sokal Affair raised the public consciousness about views of what science is and how it works. Brown presents and illuminates the issues with admirable clarity and logic. He is a Professor of Philosophy with a deep respect for rational thinking. Unlike some, he doesn't view "cultural relativism" as a fad. Instead, he's aware of its impact in education and the wider world of social and political life. We are daily confronted with decisions to be made. We must make them on a rational basis and not be misled by "charlatans" who would obfuscate the issues. We make decisions on the basis of the values we hold. Brown enjoins us to be clear on our values - their foundations and how they are derived. This all sounds familiar, even redundant. Brown demonstrates how easily we can be misled if we fail to pay attention to what we are encouraged to believe and how we act on those beliefs.
Brown's answer to the query in his title seems simplistic - you do. You should rule science through democracy. We all believe in democracy [at least most of us reading this book do] and we all feel we know what it means. Brown wants you to reconsider what you believe about democracy and how it should be practiced. In short, he understands that in our form of democracy, knowledge, not emotion or mythology, should rule. Brown demonstrates how "expertise" already plays a significant role in political decisions. Expertise is derived by those who employ scientific methods to increase our knowledge. Our job is to sort through differing views to determine which is most applicable to issues under consideration. He recognizes the difficulty of the task, offering step-by-step solutions to ease the burden. People need to hear "more intelligent and informed voices" in Brown's view. How to find those voices? The starting point is this book. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Not the Best Thing since Sliced Bread.......2003-05-03
This is a nice little interesting book, but I can't agree with the effusive praise it's garnered. Brown does have some useful things to say, and his analysis is more balanced than that of many commentators on the science wars, but in places that analysis is rather shallow. It seems to me, for example, that the philosophical difficulties of naturalism would be something worth addressing by Brown, but he gives those difficulties short shrift.
Brown is just as capable as the extremists at dismissing those he disagrees with as "mushy-minded", "bad scientists" whose views are "laughable" and whose sanity should be doubted. All those who think moral norms might have divine origin? According to Brown, they're "naively religious". All those who disagree with Brown about capital punishment? According to Brown, they just must not have studied the matter as much as he has. (For Brown, this is apparently an issue on which it is impossible for there to be an honest, informed difference of opinion.) As someone who sympathizes with both Brown and Norman Levitt on many issues but disagrees with them each on others, I have to say that it's a lot more fun to be insulted by Levitt because he does it with such style! (Incidentally, Brown's analysis of Gross and Levitt's book only seems to make sense if Levitt is on the political Right. My reading of Levitt's _Prometheus Bedeviled_ leads me to believe that that is far from the case.)
One last item: Brown writes: "Most people could achieve a high-level understanding of any branch of science, but only if several years have been devoted to its intense study." I'm not sure whether Brown classifies mathematics as a branch of science, but I see no more evidence that sufficient training could provide most people with a high-level understanding of mathematics than that sufficient training could provide most people with the ability to high jump 7 feet. I used to tell my students that intense study would undoubtedly make them successful; after seeing several hard-workers earn D's, I stopped saying that.
Outstanding contribution to applied philosophy of science.......2002-09-14
I agree with the previous review that this is probably the single best book on the "science wars" to date.
While I learned more about the different ways science is viewed in Western culture from reading both sides in Labinger and Collins' "The One Culture," this book is nearly as educational and quite a bit easier to read. Brown is extremely good at making complex things (like philosophy of science) much more understandable and at explaining things we too quickly assume we are thinking about the same way (like politics) in a way that helps understanding as well.
Brown is remarkably fair to all sides in the often contentious debates over science, sometimes reminding me of that other excellent Canadian philosopher, Ian Hacking. He satisfyingly plays both sociologists of science and "internalist" supporters of science against postmodern philosophers whom he (I think correctly) disqualifies as being largely irrelevant to serious debates because as often as not they are simply unfamiliar with the real content of the scientific theories they claim to be arbitrary cultural constructions.
The point stressed in this book is that the usual interpretation of the debate follows the sides defined in Gross and Levitt's "Higher Superstition:" the "academic left" opponents of science vs. the supporters of science, and that this is an understandable error in defining the real sides.
As a supporter of science who is on the left and is an academic, Brown points out the fallacy of defining the sides that way, and also points out the too often ignored intentions of the sociologists of science to be _doing_ legitimate science, not attacking it. He interprets the lesson of Alan Sokal's famous hoax as raising the flag of rational thought for both the political left and the political right, rather than pitting one against the other.
This book contains one of the very best general introductions to the philosophy of science, an excellent recap of the best arguments against extreme versions of social constructionism, and also a superb overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the textbook internalist view of science as the confirmation and refutation of hypotheses. He makes the specific unique contributions of each philosopher of science particularly clear.
This wonderful and solid introduction to the issues is followed by an equally good introduction to the program of scientists who study science itself, "externally," and how it differs from programs studying other objects. Perhaps Brown's most useful contribution of all is identifying the difference between the "external"and "internal" programs as different perspectives on human belief, what causes people to accept and reject beliefs, rather than different ways of looking at realism and objectivity. I was persuaded by his argument that the central difference is whether we see reasoning and evidence as strong causal forces in human belief, or whether we see other causal forces as primary. It isn't difficult to find plenty of cases where theorists have to decide between different interpretations based on their subjective plausibility, and plenty of ways that reasoning from evidence goes astray. The question becomes whether we can actually rely on reasoning without going astray, whether norms of objectivity themselves actually do lead to objective reasoning in some sense.
The book ends with an interesting discussion of the democratization of science that helpfully ties all of the themes together to the author's conclusion that epsitemology is inseparable from politics, that science does indeed work, that it relies on a diversity of theories competing with one another, and that we need better informed and intelligent voices promoting it.
I had one point of confusion about Brown's explanations, in an otherwise very clear book. His explanation of "naturalism" didn't quite make sense to me. Rather than just leaving it simply as a view of nature that precludes the supernatural, he adds some assumptions that seem to tie naturalism directly to positivism, seeing the norm of objectivity as not only essential to science but to naturalism in general, and the only and best way of gathering information about the world.
It seems to me that people can be naturalists in the philosophical sense and yet consider non-scientific ways of knowing to be valuable. Emotions, metaphor, and examples aren't specifically tools of science, but they are still part of the natural world and ways of gathering potentially useful information about it that can subsequently be introduced into science. Regarding an "aesthetic understanding" of the world as being outside of the natural world doesn't quite make sense to me. It isn't important to his argument however, and a minor quibble about an otherwise outstanding and well-written book.
Brown leaves no important consideration unconsidered in this original and valuable contribution to the literature on the study of science.
the best single book on the "Science Wars".......2002-03-09
This new book by Canadian philosopher of science James Robert Brown follows in a direct lineage from Gross & Levitt's 1994 HIGHER SUPERSTITION, which inspired Alan Sokal's famous hoax in the journal Social Text. Sokal was Brown's inspiration! Brown has written 4 previous books in the philosophy of science, but this one is different in that it is pitched to a popular audience rather than philosophers. The first 4 chapters are a very readable introduction to the issues. Included are a summary of the nature of science, a brief history of the philosophy of science, and a ruthless skewering of the "nihilist/postmodern" wing of social constructivism. My only objection here is Brown's peculiar treatment of Popper, who is a hero of mine. Brown takes "science is puzzle-solving" to be an anti-Popperian position, but Popper said again and again that science is problem-solving!
The next 3 chapters, 5-7, are the heart of the book. The going gets rougher, but it is well worth the effort to follow the arguments. Brown analyzes three concepts (realism, objectivity and values) which are necessary to understand the various positions. Sorting out the difference between realism and objectivity makes it possible to disentangle much confusion. Brown presents a 2 X 2 table, with both objective and subjective forms of both ontology and epistemology. So, for instance, Kuhn rejects ontological objectivity -- the properties of the world are not real, they are just the result of our paradigms for understanding it. But Kuhn does not reject epistemological objectivity, despite widespread misinterpretation -- he says there are good reasons for choosing one paradigm over another. (Brown and I are not social constructivists in that we maintain that the properties of the world are indeed real!) Brown then tackles the SSK group, centered around Bloor, labeled by Brown the "naturalist wing of social constructionism." This section makes perfect sense, including Brown's argument that "reasons can be causes," except for the discussion of Friedman's attempted compromise, which I'll have to read again.
You need not agree with Brown's moral/ideological agenda to benefit from the book. But the opinionated part is that Brown is a left/liberal who thinks science has an important role to play in bringing about progressive change in society -- in a word, change toward greater equality. I share his views entirely, including his arguments regarding national health care -- both the Canadian and the British model are vastly preferable to the American one. The last chapters discuss the issue of "democratization of science" and "science with a social agenda." I find Brown to be eminently reasonable in sorting out what sorts of democratization would actually be beneficial -- he rejects simplistic notions of direct democracy. The people should rule, says Brown, but "they need to hear more intelligent and informed voices." Brown concludes by calling for critics of science to focus on the role of money and corporate agendas rather than on epistemology. Then we could fight a Science War that, rather than being merely a rearguard defense of reason, might really do some good!
Books:
- Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind The Ufo Phenomenon
- An Introduction to the World's Oceans 8/e with bind in OLC card
- Applied Optimization with MATLAB Programming
- Applied Partial Differential Equations, Fourth Edition
- Barbaro: The Horse Who Captured America's Heart
- Basic Business Statistics: Concepts and Applications and CD package (10th Edition)
- Beyond Supernature: A New Natural History of the Supernatural
- Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues (The Human Biology Place Series)
- Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World with CD-ROM
- Color Atlas of Cancer Cytology
Books Index
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