Beach Haven

THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS
4th Edition
By Thomas S. Kuhn
The University of Chicago Press, 2012, 217 pages

In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (original 1962) Thomas Kuhn sheds doubt on the cumulative nature of scientific knowledge, and offers an alternative explanation of how scientists’ views change over time. Kuhn describes the source of his inspiration as coming from historiographic cyclical patterns leading up to and following major shifts, or “extraordinary episodes” (p.6), in scientific thought; noting the pattern as normal science, puzzle-solving, an established paradigm, discovery of anomalies, crisis, and revolution. The author’s “most fundamental objective is to urge a change in the perception and evaluation of familiar data” (p. xliii), here he is referring to historiographical data, in order to advocate a “reorientation” (ibid) of how we understand the nature of scientific change.

Kuhn appeals to both historians of science, and communities of scientists, in an effort to show value in both disciplines, and how the ideas of each influences the other. His argument is strengthened through use of multiple specific examples of scientific revolutions (extraordinary episodes both large and small) to show how events followed the proposed historic pattern.

The author points to weaknesses in his argument in a postscript added to the 1969 edition, having ignored other influences on paradigms (which he referred to as a 'disciplinary matrix') such as metaphysics, values, and shared commitment (p. 185-186). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions has become canon in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), as it raises significant questions in history, sociology, philosophy, and policy; all core concerns in the STS discipline.

​LEFT FOR DEAD
MY JOURNEY HOME FROM EVEREST
By Beck Weathers and Stephen G. Michaud
Bantam Books, 2015, 292 pages
Review by Michael Beach
 
At first one could assume this was another account of the tragedy that has been documented in a number of works including books and movies. Although the authors reference occurrences of the 1996 Everest attempt, this book focuses more about how mountaineering, and other obsessions, took Weathers away from his home and family. As a result, he nearly lost his family. On Everest he nearly lost his life. He did lose physical parts of himself. He documents both the physical rescue and recovery, as well has the changes he made in himself to become a part of his family again. Although there is adventure in the book, this is more a self-assessment and philosophical journey.
 
Beck Weathers was among climbers from several adventure tour organizations who paid for guides to help them summit Everest. Unfortunately, a series of physical problems kept him from reaching the goal. Worse, bad weather swept in on summit day and trapped many of the climbers out in the open, including Weathers. He and several other climbers were eventually left behind as other climbers felt unable to help them, and judged that helping them back to camp would not stop the inevitable. Death did come to the other stranded climbers around Weathers, but for reasons even he does not understand, he wondered alone, blind, and severely frost bitten eventually stumbling into camp.
 
Having read a few of the other accounts, this telling adds perspective. It is also very applicable to many who obsessively take on goal achievement as a method to stave off depression. That is Beck Weathers’ assessment of himself. His family suffered to the point that his marriage was on the brink of divorce. Coming home physically after Everest did not stop the potential of divorce. What saved his family was his willingness to understand the real issues he faced psychologically and get help in approaching something like normalcy in himself. He had to take this step first before he could work with his wife to reconstitute the family unit. Though this reviewer was not as obsessed as the primary author, yet some of those same tendencies are noted, making this work of the author’s introspection one also for this reader.

SPACESHIP IN THE DESERT
ENERGY, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND URBAN DESIGN IN ABU DHABI
By Gökçe Günel
Duke University Press, 2019, 256 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach

Success or Failure?


This book recounts the history of an entire community created in the deserts of Abu Dhabi based on renewable energy approaches. The idea was to create a campus in which new energy technologies could develop to help the country become less dependent on petroleum revenue. The name of the new city is Masdar.

Günel notes how Bruno Latour referred to technology as a system (p.139). Where most of us see only the portion we interact with, that portion is supported by an entire network of interconnected parts. For example, at Masdar people in general noted the pod cars of the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system as if they were one and the same (p.142). In fact, the pod cars are of no worth without the supporting system known as the undercroft, the controlling software, and an army of maintenance crew, often made up of workers from Asia. These workers were not allowed to live in the city, nor even use the pod cars once up and running.


How does one describe project success or failure? Exactly! The fact that this is even a question points to how criteria (official and unofficial) varies with every beholder’s eye. 


The PRT was not successful in that it could not handle large numbers of passengers efficiently. It was not cost effective. The undercroft requirement caused increased indirect expenses for the buildings which had to be lifted by 20 feet to accommodate the required space. One could simply walk the short distance the PRT served. It went not faster than a bicycle. Eventually, when a new executive took over the Masdar facility, the PRT was cancelled.


Despite the pessimistic view, others saw how people who came to visit the facility lined up to ride the PRT despite the availability of a shuttle bus during large events. Even jaded academics who pointed out issues still used the system because it was fun, making functionality a secondary consideration (p.142).


Günel makes the point of how the Masdar PRT is just one in a string of PRT projects that all end essentially the same. Although the system in West Virginia is still in use, it does so with a $120M price tag and an annual cost of $5M, and has stayed essentially small scale. It only goes between  West Virginia University (WVU) campuses and downtown Morgantown. 


In his 1994 book  The Anti-Politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho, Jame Ferguson argues whether or not original project goals are realized, something is accomplished. The project goals represent an entry point of development efforts, but whatever effect comes about, stakeholders think of some outcomes as desirable, and others as undesirable. 

SAINTS 1846 – 1893
NO UNHALLOWED HAND
Numerous editors and writers
Intellectual Reserve, Inc., 2020, 833 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
 
This is the second volume of history published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints under the Saints name. It opens during the interregnum period after the martyrdom of the prophet Joseph Smith. In this opening period the church was led by the quorum of twelve apostles, and more specifically by Brigham Young as president of that quorum. The history continues through the exodus to the Rocky Mountains, post US Civil War efforts against the church surrounding the practice of polygamy, and the eventual dissolution of the practice. The review ends with the dedicatory events around the completion of the temple in Salt Lake City.
 
Professional historians meticulously researched and wrote the sections of this work. The approach they used combines traditional historical narration intertwined with personal stories of some of the specific people involved in key events. Stories of individuals help the reader better understand how thought trends were shaped both within the church and within political and journalistic circles. There are plenty of examples of abuse of power by civil authorities. One also finds tensions around the issue of polygamy both within subgroups of church members, families, and even individuals.
 
Another thread the historians follow includes relations between church members settling in the west, and native peoples who were already in situ. Some of those interactions were amicable, but often the contrasting culture led to conflict.
 
Major historical events become more understandable through personal stories. Actions by church leaders, civil authorities, and widely recognizable individual people are more understandable, if not always sympathetic to the reader. 

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THE MIND HAS NO SEX?
WOMEN IN THE ORIGINS OF MODERN SCIENCE
By Londa Schiebinger
Harvard University Press, 1991, 355 pages
Review by Michael Beach
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Feminist Historian Challenge to the Definition of “Scientific” Activities

Despite a few noted exceptions, most women during the so-called scientific revolution period in Europe were not admitted to universities, academies or scientific societies. The degree of acceptance depended on location (Schiebinger, 1989). Italian scientific organizations in Bologna, Padua, and Rome allowed women in all sorts of roles, including positions of leadership (ibid 26). In France, involvement of women was more likely to be in salon discussions hosted by socially influential people. In fact women were often the organizers of this form of intellectual pursuit which included thought leaders of both sexes (ibid 30). German science was more economically motivated and social leaders tended to see scientific advance by women through the extension of rights under guild rules. As an artisan or business owner they could perpetuate their roles after the death of their husband (ibid 66). A noted exception was Maria Winkelmann who helped her husband create all sorts of calendars by collecting astronomical data. After his death the Berlin Academy of Sciences chose not to allow her to continue, even in a less elevated role of Assistant Calendar Maker (ibid 90).  English science seemed even less welcoming to women in any role beyond working as an assistant to a male counterpart, often her spouse. French style salons were frowned upon by English gentility (ibid 32).

Alternatives did include attempts at women’s academies, though the idea didn’t catch on so well for lack of patronage. Monasteries offered opportunities for study and contemplation, but did not tend to have a scientific focus, rather a religious one. Many women participated in science through art, recreating through drawings what could only be seen under a microscope, or preserving specimens through the injection of wax (ibid 29).

Carolyn Merchant included philosophical argument sharing views of groups concerned with metaphysics (Merchant, 1980). She spoke of the internal/external argument by sharing views of philosophers often considered as external to science, though she does not speak to individual female scientific philosophers.


Katherine Park confirms Joan Kelly’s argument of their having been no renaissance for women (Park, 2006). Kelly was more focused on women and science. Park notes Merchant offers more of “the generalist vision in the history of science” (ibid 489). Merchant depicts less about the specific effect on women scientists, and more on the metaphor of nature as female. That said, Merchant (214) does describe Hobbes’ atomistic view of equality as “meant for middle- and upper-class property-holding males” (Merchant, 1980)


Specific Examples of Institutions, Practices, and Areas of Knowledge


Despite all the challenges, women were able to make significant contributions. Scheibinger’s work shares examples through the entire book.  Margaret Cavendish married into a noble network of scholars. She worked primarily in isolation from other women, but became a thought leader in the atomistic philosophy. She lauded occasional attacks on rationalists and empiricists of her day. Emilie du Chatelet worked in close contact with Voltaire. Through him she was able to intermingle with many Newtonians of her day. She was able to use her social position of privilege to intermingle with the scholarly. Maria Sibylla Merian combined her artistic talents with her husband to create businesses. She gained notoriety through creating and selling art depicting nature of all scales. Maria Winkelmann became an astronomer by learning first from her father, later largely through partnership with her second husband Gottfried Kirch (Schiebinger, 1989). Though her major work was originally published by Kirch under his name, in a later publishing he gave Winkelmann credit (ibid 85).


Mainstream Scientific Culture Described as “Masculine” Rather Than “Gender-neutral”


Carolyn Merchant speaks to the evolution of nature from mother/womb, to untamed woman to be ‘penetrated’ in order to understand it, to the self-revealing woman, then finally to a non-woman mechanical cosmos (Merchant, 1980). These definitions came from a male perspective in the attempt to understand nature through the cultural definitions of womanhood. However Merchant only mentions one woman, Margaret Cavendish (ibid 206). She is incidentally depicted as one of a group, the rest are men, of English Royalist emigres in France with whom Thomas Hobbes associates himself while living there. The focus of the section is really on Hobbes’ mechanistic view of the cosmos and nature.


The Mechanism of Hobbes shows a default assumption of paternalism. Merchant shows how atomism would mean that all nature is the same, or equal, since everything is a result of atoms in motion. This even included the “human soul, will, brain, and appetites” (ibid 205). Despite the equality this stand should define, yet in Leviathan Hobbes describes a family in terms of a father, children and servants. Mother is not mentioned (ibid 214). This social depiction comes despite the argument that a child’s mother is always known, but the father is only known by the confession of the mother.
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One way Schiebinger depicts the masculinization of science is to share how Kant describes the difference between the sexes through how each understands (Schiebinger, 1989). “Kant associated woman’s ‘beautiful understanding’ not with science, but with feeling.” He further argues women come to their philosophy “not to reason, but to sense” (ibid 271).
BibliographyMerchant, C. (1980). The Death of Nature. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Park, K. (2006). Women, Gender, and Utopia. FOCUS - ISIS, 487- 495.
Schiebinger, L. (1989). The Mind has no Sex? London: Harvard University Press.

KILLING LINCOLN
By Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011, 324 pages
Review by Michael Beach
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This is one in a series of similar books by this author duo. Each book looks at the assassination, or attempted assassination, of some famous person. The book is written as a narrative story, but pulls on the works of many historians. The first part of the book concentrates on the ending battles and scenes of the American Civil War. Interactions of generals and troops north and south, as well as Lincoln’s actions shed light on an important part of our history. John Wilks Booth and his fellow conspirators are addressed only lightly in the first half of the chapters. When they are spoken of the depictions at times relate to the war and its leading figures, other times their lives seem to have little to do with larger historical events.
 
The second part of the book shifts and is almost the opposite of the fist. The authors now focus now shines brightly mostly on the conspiracy and its participants. Government and military leaders, including Lincoln, are still mentioned, but more from how their actions are noted and interpreted by the assassination ring.
 
Like many concentrated histories, many lesser-known characters are brought to light. It seems surprising to hear some of the important roles played by people you never learn about in formal history classes growing up. These stories make the history less sterile, more human, and more believable. This certainly was a sad chapter in human history, not just because of the presidential murder, but also to see how the war effected the psyche of Americans on both sides. All involved saw their deeds as necessary evils, but some were really evil. Personal motivation is at the heart of what makes one willing to sacrifice, as opposed to those who use the same language in their willingness to sacrifice others for personal benefit.
 
I don’t know how much of this book is accurate. It seems as likely true as any other history I’ve read. My personal feelings on history, or even documented contemporary events, is that they are all colored by the original sources. Original sources are also colored by those who create them. My guess is this book represents a reasonable proximity to what actually happened. It says a lot about both the highest and lowest of human motivation and choice. 

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MICHAEL POLANYI AND HIS GENERATION
By Mary Jo Nye
University of Chicago Press, 2011, 405 pages
​Review by Michael Beach
 
Through the personal history of Michael Polanyi, Mary Jo Nye helps readers through the growth of ideas around how science is influenced by society. The subtitle helps to understand this; ‘Origins of the Social Construction of Science.’

The idea of community relates to groups of people, and how people within the group influence each other. Nye, through Polanyi, makes the case for ‘social construction’. Social implies community. Construction implies group influence. Before reviewing Polanyi’s theoretical loss to Langmuir on the Nernst heat problem, Nye paraphrases Polanyi’s views on the outcomes. She depicts his views as a “controversial description of science as a community of dogmatic traditions and social practices rather than a march of revolutionary ideas and individual genius” (Nye 85).

The word community shares the word root of communication, which implies interaction. In the scientific world, individuals or groups of scientists communicate ideas through formal and informal methods. The community reflects back acceptance or non-acceptance (sometimes both) equally through formal and informal methods.

Chapter 3 in particular shows some of the downs in the up-and-down scientific career of Polanyi. It is probably fair to say he was surrounded by, and was part of, a community of some of the leading minds in chemistry and physics of his day, and of all time. The comment and reflection of that community not only influenced success or failure of his career personally, but also determined future directions of the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

A key example Nye gives is acceptance of Langmuir’s ideas of covalent and electrovalent polar and non-polar bonds over Polanyi’s adsorption theory. Several times she quotes Polanyi as he points to comments by Einstein, Nernst and others indicating that adsorption did not fit with new electron theories (Nye 109). This difficulty held true even given later “consistency of evidence with his new theory” (ibid). The community put more stock in ideas that supported the more recently accepted electron theories almost exclusively. Such was the power of scientific community.

Michael Polanyi’s work with Henry Eyring regarding a temporary transition state of chemical reactions might be seen as a foreshadow of his own transition state as he changed focus from chemistry, to economics and politics, finally settling on the philosophy of science.

The position taken by Polanyi and Erying defines the semi-empirical method in which experience is considered along with mathematical formulaic calculation. An element of probability is included in defining chemical interaction. Based on empirical experimentation, they posited when joining one chemical to a compound of two, the result is a different compound and chemical. They also asserted that during the transition process there is a temporary state in which a single compound composed of all three chemicals exists.

During his time in Budapest and Berlin, Polanyi was focused primarily on chemistry, but there was always some smaller amount of his time in which he considered, and wrote about, economics and politics. After moving to Manchester, the balance of his attention shifted the other way. Others in the chemistry department complained about this attention shift. He put less and less time into the daily lab effort. He even used a concocted chemical apparatus of a vacuum-containing glass to make a graphic explanation of his ideas on Keynesian economics (Nye 159).

Nye argues that Polanyi’s economic preoccupation was a “bridge to his sociologically inflected philosophy of science” (Nye 176). If this ‘bridge’ idea is true, then the original state might be thought of as science, since chemistry is a branch of science. It could be argued that both economics and politics have sociological and philosophical foundations. The mix of all of these areas of contemplation led to the final state of his new ‘intellectual compound’ within the discipline of the philosophy of science. During his 'transitory state', Polanyi was not fully based in science nor the social sciences, but some shifting level of each. The resultant ‘compound’ of the philosophy of science was not the same as the beginning ‘substance’ of science nor the transitory ‘compound’ of science, economics and politics.
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SAINTS
1815-1846
THE STANDARD OF TRUTH
Long list of editors and writers
Intellectual Reserve, Inc., 2018, 699 pages
 
For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the major historical events reviewed in this book will be familiar. The writers also included are many details lost to most of us who are not focused historians. The macro-timeline is woven together with micro-histories of individuals both central to, and on the periphery of, depicted events. The book is very factual, but written in a way for the lay reader to move along with the story.
 
Though the work is historically weighty and heavily researched by a cadre of academics, the read does not feel daunting. For me, there are many particulars included that help better understand why the people involved may have taken positions and actions they did. Their stories seem more humanized. The editors’ efforts at keeping larger regional, national and international contexts in the narrative also made the story more understandable for me.
 
The work begins with the early life of Joseph Smith and the larger Smith family. It ends just after his martyrdom, and that of his brother Hyrum. Whether one ascribes to the doctrine or organization of the church, the book offers valuable insight into a critical time in American history. It also may help the reader better understand the appeal of a church that has grown globally from very humble beginnings. 

EINSTEIN’S CLOCKS, POINCARE’S MAPS
By Peter Galison
W.W. Norton & Company, 2003, 389 pages
 
Galison walks the reader through a significant shift in scientific thought through the contemporary history of the two titled scientists. Both were examining issues related to interactions of space and time. Einstein is obviously the more famous outside scientific circles. Both were approaching the subject in connection with some famous mathematical equations published by physicist James Clerk Maxwell. These two were not alone. Many others (Gauss, Plank, Ampere, Faraday, etc.) created theories around his ideas to later be widely adopted in this area Maxwell explored on electromagnetism.
 
Poincare was interested, among other things, in creating widely adopted convention on both the reference longitude grid of the globe, and a method for setting a universal time system. The practical goals led him to some larger theoretical conclusions. He was a few decades ahead of the younger Einstein, and both referenced some of the same theoretical works that preceded them. Einstein was less interested in setting a universal standard, as we was in trying to understand relationships among space, time, and relative speed.
 
It seems like there were two larger differences between these two theorists. Poincare wanted to have a central reference point from which to compare other similar points within time and space. He also believed in the long held assumption of the existence of an aether in space, meaning an undefined substance that exists everywhere. Einstein was not worried about either of these. He was looking for a way to explain any motion or time relative to any other motion or time. He also simply ignored mathematical considerations of trying to account for an unknown substance such as the aether. Ultimately, we all know which view of physics became the ‘standard’ in our day.
 
For Poincare, it is not important how one measures time, distance, etc. so long as all agree to the system. The French were looking for a rationalized (specifically decimal-based) system. For example Galison notes that Poincare and others complained that one needs three measurements for time (h, m, s) or for global positioning (d, m, s). Setting measurements on multiples of 24 or 360 as was and still is the norm, is arguably more complex and less arithmetically friendly than a 10-based system such as a 10 hour day or a circle (the globe) divided by 100 degrees.

All measurement is about convention (an adoption consensus). For example, Galison points out how Greenwich, England seemed to win out over Paris on the prime meridian argument because 70% of shipping captains of the day were already using it as such. There was actually a fairly strong competition between England and France over where the prime meridian should be located. Greenwich and Paris had the two most well-established astronomical observatories and both argued for the longitude of their particular location as the prime.

Literally any system can be adopted, and often is adopted, on false belief. Galison himself falls into such a trap at the bottom of page 34 where he describes finding latitude as 'simple' by noting the position of the polar star. Sadly, that only works for the northern hemisphere leaving out half of the globe! Northern countries 'decided' or 'adopted' a system assuming latitude based on this format (equator is 0 degrees, pole is 90 degrees) then simply applied the same logic in the opposite direction to get a north and south latitude scheme. It might have been just as effective to say the south pole was 0 degrees and the north pole 180 degrees (or any other scale, or in the opposite direction for that matter), and not start based on the north star with a northern hemisphere focus. Since northern (and most assuredly European) explorers and mariners adopted the polar star method for navigational convenience the system based on the 360-degree angular representation became the normal approach. Similar astronomical navigation was adopted in the Middle-East and Asia using the polar star.

Peter Galison makes a great case about how science is advanced through individual genius applied to the earlier thoughts of other individuals of genius. Seeking for practical answers, such as Poincare, can lead to larger theoretical explanatory attempts. The opposite is also true. For Einstein, the practical need for synchronized time inspired him, but he never really tried to invent methods for time synchronization. This work helps make the case that science is a social effort. Poincare’s desire to hold onto the idea of an aether, for example, became a roadblock for him. Galison makes a good case that he held to conservative assumptions because of his leadership roles within the hierarchy of established French scientific institutions. Einstein, on the other hand, created the base of what became his special and general theories of relativity while working in the Swiss patent office. Without the institutional trappings, Galison argues, Einstein was able to let go of long-held scientific assumptions. 
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​THE AMBITIONS OF CURIOSITY
By G.E.R. Lloyd
Cambridge University Press, 2002, 175 pages
 
In this work Lloyd contrasts learning in ancient Greece and China. There is a deep look at both the methods of patronage by those in authority, as well as the emergence of brokers who connected scholars with patrons. He also reviews how technology was view differently in these two very different cultures.
 
I wonder if there is a form of codependency between the documented cycles predicting future events in the Chinese publications described by Lloyd, and the emperor and courtiers whose reputations rode on the outcomes. For example Lloyd points out that when a predicted event does not occur it is thought of as a sign that the emperor has special power to hold back the event, but if an event happens that was not predicted it was thought indicative of neglect of some sort on his part. It would be fair to assume, as does Lloyd, that if the emperor looks bad it would go poorly for his wise men who were supposed to help him know these things. Whereas events were supposedly dependent on predictableness and the strength of documentation, so too was the emperor likewise dependent on the strength of the documentation.
 
Similar metaphysics existed in Greek culture in relation to the Pantheon. Omens were both feared and sought after. Courtiers, or ‘wise men’, at times were from religious institutions, other times specifically non-religious. In either case, when patronage was attached to an adopted school, the professors of a given school (theoretical if not an actual institution) were personally at risk.
 
Many parallels can be drawn from today. Academics often study and publish at the behest of authority, public or private, in the form of grants or stipends. Science itself can sometimes bear the brunt of poor findings. Case in point could be the example of early believe there was little risk to humans from so-called ‘mad cow disease.’ As we now look at the latest wave of COVID-19, perhaps we should continue to both consider how science ‘progresses’ and how the same structures that encourage the scientific path might also limit inquiry.