If anybody, like me, feels uncertain about the issues which always seem to come
up when we get into the
science/design/positivism-might-be-dead/who-has-a-swipe-card debate they might
like to read:
Science and Poetry
Mary Midgley
pub Routledge Nov 2000
isbn 0415237327
Mary Midgley provides an excellent and sympathetic review of many of the issues
and some of the history. She seeks to take a balanced position although she is
very much in favour of poetry and feels that scientists still need to develop a
more holistic and humane perspective (don't we all?). She certainly helped me
to understand this debate better and to distinguish between atomistic thinking,
which still persists, and the broader outlook that can and does inform much
science.
Another book that gives a more factual view of the way that scientific thought
has evolved is:
Ways of Knowing
John Pickstone
pub Manchester University Press Dec 2000
isbn 0719059941
John Pickstone is a Historian specialising in the history of Science,
Technology and Medicine and this book is his review of how these three have
arrived where they are today. He is also interested in the role of "invention"
and the relationship between academic research and its application in society.
For that matter he has quite a lot to say about how today's academic
institutions have evolved.
hope that helps somebody, I meant to send this message when Rosan raised the
question of swipe cards and privileged knowledge but a colleague had borrowed
my copy of the Mary Midgley book.
best wishes from Sheffield
Chris
*******************************************
Chris Rust
Reader in Design
Art and Design Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University UK
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tel +44 114 225 2706
fax +44 114 225 2603
Psalter Lane, Sheffield S11 8UZ, UK
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