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Philosophy & Social Aspects | - 8 items found in your search |
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Loren Graham Between Science and Values
Columbia University Press 1981 0231051921 / 9780231051927 Hardcover Fine n/a Hardcover
New. Fine in publisher's cloth as issued. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide.Fine in publisher's cloth as issued.
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6.54 GBP
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Loren Graham Between Science and Values
Columbia University Press 1981 0231051921 / 9780231051927 Hardcover Near fine n/a Hardcover
New. Near fine in publisher's cloth as issued/no dust jacket. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide.Near fine in publisher's cloth as issued, shrink wrapped.
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4.35 GBP
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MacKenzie, Donald Knowing Machines: Essays on Technical Change
The MIT Press 1998 0262631881 / 9780262631884 Paperback Near fine n/a Paperback 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
New. Remainder mark, else fine in publisher's decorated wrappers. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide.Not for the technologically faint of heart, this volume contains provocative essays by one of the more interesting sociologists of modern technology... his intellectual agility is as impressive as his observations are instructive." -- Foreign Affairs, March/April 1999 "The essays collected in Knowing Machines are enormously impressive: for the quality of the scholarship, for their wide range and for what they indicate about Donald MacKenzie's grasp of the demanding technical issues under discussion." --Steven Yearley, Times Literary Supplement "The essays collected in Knowing Machines are enormously impressive: for the quality of the scholarship, for their wide range and for what they indicate about Donald MacKenzie's grasp of the demanding technical issues under discussion." -- Steven Yearley, Times Literary Supplement Ranging from broad inquiries into the roles of economics and sociology in the explanation of technological change to an argument for the possibility of "uninventing" nuclear weapons, this selection of Donald MacKenzie's essays provides a solid introduction to the style and substance of the sociology of technology. Two conceptual essays are followed by seven empirical essays focusing on the laser gyroscopes that are central to modern aircraft navigation technology, supercomputers (with a particular emphasis on their use in the design of nuclear weapons), the application of mathematical proof in the design of computer systems, computer-related accidental deaths, and the nature of the knowledge that is needed to design a nuclear bomb. Two of the articles won major prizes on their original journal publication. A substantial new introduction outlines the common themes underlying this body of work and places them in the context of recent debates in technology studies.
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11.84 GBP
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Pacey, Arnold Meaning in Technology
The MIT Press 1999 0262161826 / 9780262161824 Hardcover Near fine Fine Hardcover 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
New. Remainder mark, else fine in publisher's cloth in like dust jacket. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide.From Library Journal: Most of us associate technology with science and objectivity. Writing in a conversational style, Pacey refreshingly advocates the personal experience of technology as an essential part of the larger public meaning. Thus, he focuses on the affective side and on how technology "feels" to individuals who use it. Pacey examines music as a source of technology and relates visual thinking, tactile knowledge, and social meaning (especially play) to the development of technology. He also analyzes contexts, such as landscape and place, and frames ethical concerns related to gender bias and stimulating creativity. With many examples, Pacey makes a convincing case for technology that values people as well as their environment. This work extends and complements the concepts developed in Pacey's previous books, The Culture of Technology (LJ 2/15/84), Technology in World Civilization (LJ 3/1/91) and The Maze of Ingenuity (MIT, 1992). With extensive references; recommended for academic and public libraries.ALaverna Saunders, Salem State Coll. Lib., MA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist: Pacey is a lecturer for Britain's Open University and the author of The Culture of Technology and Technology and World Civilization. In those books Pacey investigated the role of nations and geography in shaping technology and the impact of technology on societies and cultures. He argued that technology transfer is a dynamic process, not a one-way process, and that the technologies of Asia, Europe, and Africa interacted with and influenced one another. Now he looks at the relationship between technology and the individual. He considers how members of groups such as engineers, craft workers, and consumers experience technology, and he explores various creative sources of technology, including visual thinking, tactile knowledge, and music. To help understand the connections between technology and nature and between technology and society, Pacey also studies the contexts in which technology is used. His analysis is neither a paean to nor a diatribe against technology; instead, it is a thoughtful call for a more "people-centered" technology. David Rouse
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8.07 GBP
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Stanford, P. Kyle Exceeding Our Grasp: Science, History, and the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives
Oxford University Press, USA 2006 0195174089 / 9780195174083 Hardcover Fine Fine Hardcover 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
New. Fine in publisher's cloth in like dust jacket. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide.Stanford has genuinely advanced the philosophical discussion about scientific realism with his careful articulation of the problem of unconceived alternatives."--Alan C. Love, The Review of Metaphysics "Stanford's book deserves to be widely read. Its central argument is clearly stated, its conclusion is radical, it engages in a productive fashion with detailed case studies, and it lays down several substantial challenges to scientific realism. Lastly, it is consistently thought-provoking."--Science The incredible achievements of modern scientific theories lead most of us to embrace scientific realism: the view that our best theories offer us at least roughly accurate descriptions of otherwise inaccessible parts of the world like genes, atoms, and the big bang. In Exceeding Our Grasp, Stanford argues that careful attention to the history of scientific investigation invites a challenge to this view that is not well represented in contemporary debates about the nature of the scientific enterprise. The historical record of scientific inquiry, Stanford suggests, is characterized by what he calls the problem of unconceived alternatives. Past scientists have routinely failed even to conceive of alternatives to their own theories and lines of theoretical investigation, alternatives that were both well-confirmed by the evidence available at the time and sufficiently serious as to be ultimately accepted by later scientific communities. Stanford supports this claim with a detailed investigation of the mid-to-late 19th century theories of inheritance and generation proposed in turn by Charles Darwin, Francis Galton, and August Weismann. He goes on to argue that this historical pattern strongly suggests that there are equally well-confirmed and scientifically serious alternatives to our own best theories that remain currently unconceived. Moreover, this challenge is more serious than those rooted in either the so-called pessimistic induction or the underdetermination of theories by evidence, in part because existing realist responses to these latter challenges offer no relief from the problem of unconceived alternatives itself. Stanford concludes by investigating what positive account of the spectacularly successful edifice of modern theoretical science remains open to us if we accept that our best scientific theories are powerful conceptual tools for accomplishing our practical goals, but abandon the view that the descriptions of the world around us that they offer are therefore even probably or approximately true.
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15.68 GBP
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