Intellectual Pursuits
Intellectual Pursuits

Author: Bernard Barber

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780847688609

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This book is a venture in constructive clarification of several basic topics in current humanities and social science discourses that are badly muddled. The heart of the clarification is contained in Barber's definition of culture, derived from social system theory, that provides us with a better understanding of today's debate on intellectuals and the pursuit of science. Barber examines the ways in which intellectual culture is defined, the construction of ideologies and ideologists, and the structure of cultural sub-systems (high-middle-low). The book deftly interweaves these concepts to illuminate the present and historical situations of conflict in the universities and elsewhere. He distinguishes between those who emphasize the cultural norm of knowledge for its own sake, and those whose norms are primarily ideological and reformist. Intellectual Pursuits: Toward an Understanding of Culture will challenge both students and scholars to consider their own intellectual positions from both within, and without, the academy, and sharpens our perspectives on the role of intellectuals in society.

Intellectual Pursuits of Nicolas Rashevsky
Intellectual Pursuits of Nicolas Rashevsky

Author: Maya M. Shmailov

Publisher: Birkhäuser

Published: 2016-08-29

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 3319399225

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Who was Nicolas Rashevsky? To answer that question, this book draws on Rashevsky’s unexplored personal archival papers and shares interviews with his family, students and friends, as well as discussions with biologists and mathematical biologists, to flesh out and complete the picture. “Most modern-day biologists have never heard of Rashevsky. Why?” In what constitutes the first detailed biography of theoretical physicist Nicolas Rashevsky (1899-1972), spanning key aspects of his long scientific career, the book captures Rashevsky’s ways of thinking about the place mathematical biology should have in biology and his personal struggle for the acceptance of his views. It brings to light the tension between mathematicians, theoretical physicists and biologists when it comes to the introduction of physico-mathematical tools into biology. Rashevsky’s successes and failures in his efforts to establish mathematical biology as a subfield of biology provide an important test case for understanding the role of theory (in particular mathematics) in understanding the natural world. With the biological sciences moving towards new vistas of inter- and multi-disciplinary collaborations and research programs, the book will appeal to a wide readership ranging from historians, sociologists, and ethnographers of American science and culture to students and general readers with an interest in the history of the life sciences, mathematical biology and the social construction of science.

The Oxford Handbook of Research Ethics
The Oxford Handbook of Research Ethics

Author: Ana S. Iltis

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 937

ISBN-13: 0190947756

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The development of new pharmaceutical products and behavioral interventions aimed at improving people's health, as well as research that assesses the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of public policies, such as policies designed to improve children's education or reduce poverty, depends on research conducted with human participants. It is imperative that research with human subjects is conducted in accordance with sound ethical principles and regulatory requirements. Featuring 45 original essays by leading research ethicists, The Oxford Handbook of Research Ethics offers a critical overview of the ethics of human subjects research within multiple disciplines and fields, including biomedicine, public health, psychiatry, sociology, political science, and public policy.