Shaping science with rhetoric : the cases of Dobzhansky, Schrödinger, and Wilson / Leah Ceccarelli.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ceccarelli, Leah.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wilson, Edward O. Consilience.

Wilson, Edward O.

Dobzhansky, Theodosius, 1900-1975. Genetics and the origin of species.

Dobzhansky, Theodosius.

Schrödinger, Erwin, 1887-1961. What is life?.

Schrödinger, Erwin.

Life sciences literature.

Rhetoric.

Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge.

Interdisciplinary research.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (217 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How do scientists persuade colleagues from diverse fields to cross the disciplinary divide, risking their careers in new interdisciplinary research programs? Why do some attempts to inspire such research win widespread acclaim and support, while others do not? In Shaping Science with Rhetoric, Leah Ceccarelli addresses such questions through close readings of three scientific monographs in their historical contexts-Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937), which inspired the "modern synthesis" of evolutionary biology; Erwin Schrödinger's What Is Life? (1944), which catalyzed the field of molecular biology; and Edward O. Wilson's Consilience (1998), a so far not entirely successful attempt to unite the social and biological sciences. She examines the rhetorical strategies used in each book and evaluates which worked best, based on the reviews and scientific papers that followed in their wake. Ceccarelli's work will be important for anyone interested in how interdisciplinary fields are formed, from historians and rhetoricians of science to scientists themselves.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

1. Inspiring Interdisciplinarity

2. The Initiator of the Evolutionary Synthesis: Historians and Scientists Weigh In

3. A Text Rhetorically Designed to Unite Competing Fields

4. The "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of the Molecular Biology Revolution: Assessing the Place of a Text in History

5. A Text Rhetorically Designed to Negotiate Different Interests and Beliefs

6. The Controversy over Sociobiology: Scholars Offer Conflicting Explanations

7. A Text Rhetorically Designed to Fuel Interdisciplinary Hostilities

8. The Genre

9. Contributions to Four Ongoing Conversations

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-197) and index.

ISBN:

9786612901805

9781282901803

128290180X

9780226099088

0226099083

OCLC:

688293090