The Enigma of the Aerofoil

The Enigma of the Aerofoil

Author: David Bloor

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2011-10-03

Total Pages: 562

ISBN-13: 0226060934

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Why do aircraft fly? How do their wings support them? In the early years of aviation, there was an intense dispute between British and German experts over the question of why and how an aircraft wing provides lift. The British, under the leadership of the great Cambridge mathematical physicist Lord Rayleigh, produced highly elaborate investigations of the nature of discontinuous flow, while the Germans, following Ludwig Prandtl in Göttingen, relied on the tradition called “technical mechanics” to explain the flow of air around a wing. Much of the basis of modern aerodynamics emerged from this remarkable episode, yet it has never been subject to a detailed historical and sociological analysis. In The Enigma of the Aerofoil, David Bloor probes a neglected aspect of this important period in the history of aviation. Bloor draws upon papers by the participants—their restricted technical reports, meeting minutes, and personal correspondence, much of which has never before been published—and reveals the impact that the divergent mathematical traditions of Cambridge and Göttingen had on this great debate. Bloor also addresses why the British, even after discovering the failings of their own theory, remained resistant to the German circulation theory for more than a decade. The result is essential reading for anyone studying the history, philosophy, or sociology of science or technology—and for all those intrigued by flight.


A History and Philosophy of Expertise

A History and Philosophy of Expertise

Author: Jamie Carlin Watson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-11-18

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1350216496

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In this comprehensive tour of the long history and philosophy of expertise, from ancient Greece to the 20th century, Jamie Carlin Watson tackles the question of expertise and why we can be skeptical of what experts say, making a valuable contribution to contemporary philosophical debates on authority, testimony, disagreement and trust. His review sketches out the ancient origins of the concept, discussing its early association with cunning, skill and authority and covering the sort of training that ancient thinkers believed was required for expertise. Watson looks at the evolution of the expert in the middle ages into a type of “genius” or “innate talent” , moving to the role of psychological research in 16th-century Germany, the influence of Darwin, the impact of behaviorism and its interest to computer scientists, and its transformation into the largely cognitive concept psychologists study today.


Science as Social Existence

Science as Social Existence

Author: Jeff Kochan

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2017-12-18

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1783744138

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In this bold and original study, Jeff Kochan constructively combines the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) with Martin Heidegger’s early existential conception of science. Kochan shows convincingly that these apparently quite different approaches to science are, in fact, largely compatible, even mutually reinforcing. By combining Heidegger with SSK, Kochan argues, we can explicate, elaborate, and empirically ground Heidegger’s philosophy of science in a way that makes it more accessible and useful for social scientists and historians of science. Likewise, incorporating Heideggerian phenomenology into SSK renders SKK a more robust and attractive methodology for use by scholars in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Kochan’s ground-breaking reinterpretation of Heidegger also enables STS scholars to sustain a principled analytical focus on scientific subjectivity, without running afoul of the orthodox subject-object distinction they often reject. Science as Social Existence is the first book of its kind, unfurling its argument through a range of topics relevant to contemporary STS research. These include the epistemology and metaphysics of scientific practice, as well as the methods of explanation appropriate to social scientific and historical studies of science. Science as Social Existence puts concentrated emphasis on the compatibility of Heidegger’s existential conception of science with the historical sociology of scientific knowledge, pursuing this combination at both macro- and micro-historical levels. Beautifully written and accessible, Science as Social Existence puts new and powerful tools into the hands of sociologists and historians of science, cultural theorists of science, Heidegger scholars, and pluralist philosophers of science.


Deconstruction After All

Deconstruction After All

Author: Christopher Norris

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2015-10-01

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1782842772

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This collection of interviews, reflections, and creative criticism presents Christopher Norris's vigorous polemics with Hayden White, Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Thomas Kuhn, Emmanuel Levinas, Pierre Bourdieu, Richard Rorty, and Stanley Fish. Alongside Norris's uncompromising critiques there emerge passages of close and careful reading of Jacques Derrida's texts, as he cites and reiterates Derrida's philosophical contexts in the works of Immanuel Kant, Gaston Bachelard, and Georges Canguilhem, and in the current discursive fields of epistemology and philosophy of science. The book also offers a coda of essays on Frank Kermode, Terry Eagleton, and Terence Hawkes. This collection, prefaced with the author's own academic memoir, provides an accessible and provocative introduction to Norris's critical thought, and highlights the wide range of his interests and philosophical engagements.


The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism

The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism

Author: Juha Saatsi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-11-22

Total Pages: 907

ISBN-13: 1351362909

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Scientific realism is a central, long-standing, and hotly debated topic in philosophy of science. Debates about scientific realism concern the very nature and extent of scientific knowledge and progress. Scientific realists defend a positive epistemic attitude towards our best theories and models regarding how they represent the world that is unobservable to our naked senses. Various realist theses are under sceptical fire from scientific antirealists, e.g. empiricists and instrumentalists. The different dimensions of the ensuing debate centrally connect to numerous other topics in philosophy of science and beyond. The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism is an outstanding reference source – the first collection of its kind – to the key issues, positions, and arguments in this important topic. Its thirty-four chapters, written by a team of international experts, are divided into five parts: Historical development of the realist stance Classic debate: core issues and positions Perspectives on contemporary debates The realism debate in disciplinary context Broader reflections In these sections, the core issues and debates presented, analysed, and set into broader historical and disciplinary contexts. The central issues covered include motivations and arguments for realism; challenges to realism from underdetermination and history of science; different variants of realism; the connection of realism to relativism and perspectivism; and the relationship between realism, metaphysics, and epistemology. The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of science. It will also be very useful for anyone interested in the nature and extent of scientific knowledge.


Why Trust Science?

Why Trust Science?

Author: Naomi Oreskes

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0691222371

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Why the social character of scientific knowledge makes it trustworthy Are doctors right when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when so many of our political leaders don't? Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength—and the greatest reason we can trust it. Tracing the history and philosophy of science from the late nineteenth century to today, this timely and provocative book features a new preface by Oreskes and critical responses by climate experts Ottmar Edenhofer and Martin Kowarsch, political scientist Jon Krosnick, philosopher of science Marc Lange, and science historian Susan Lindee, as well as a foreword by political theorist Stephen Macedo.


Making Jet Engines in World War II

Making Jet Engines in World War II

Author: Hermione Giffard

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-10-10

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 022638859X

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Our stories of industrial innovation tend to focus on individual initiative and breakthroughs. Hermione Giffard uses the case of the development of jet engines to offer a different way of understanding technological innovation, revealing the complicated mix of factors that go into any decision to pursue an innovative, and therefore risky technology.


One Size Does Not Fit All

One Size Does Not Fit All

Author: Indrek S. Wichman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-12-31

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 1475835345

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Academic success requires talent (ability), which is not equally distributed among students. Almost all American undergraduates hail from K–12 public schools, based on the theory that everyone is academically educable. This has led to the one-size-fits-all system, which has underserved the less academically inclined students, a majority of the K-12 population. The theory that every student is academically educable, an unverified axiom of the current K-12 educational paradigm, has not been subjected to serious scrutiny. Consequently, little progress has been made toward curricular revision except tweaks of the existing system, currently the world’s most expensive. However testing, classroom performance, teacher assessment, advances in human biology and, most importantly, family and community experience, suggest that it is possible to determine who is suited for an academic or a technical education. Once that hurdle is crossed, the question of how to best educate/train/prepare America’s non-academic youth can be thoughtfully, practically and compassionately addressed.


Collections Vol 13 N2

Collections Vol 13 N2

Author: Juilee Decker

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-07-06

Total Pages: 133

ISBN-13: 1538106221

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This issue of the journal is themed with a focus on Storytelling: Oral Histories, Archives, and Museums. Articles address methods, case studies, and theoretical approaches taken by museum and archives professionals including librarians, archivists, curators, technologists, researchers, scholars, and students.


Empires of the Sky

Empires of the Sky

Author: Alexander Rose

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 657

ISBN-13: 0812989988

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The Golden Age of Aviation is brought to life in this story of the giant Zeppelin airships that once roamed the sky—a story that ended with the fiery destruction of the Hindenburg. “Genius . . . a definitive tale of an incredible time when mere mortals learned to fly.”—Keith O’Brien, The New York Times At the dawn of the twentieth century, when human flight was still considered an impossibility, Germany’s Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin vied with the Wright Brothers to build the world’s first successful flying machine. As the Wrights labored to invent the airplane, Zeppelin fathered the remarkable airship, sparking a bitter rivalry between the two types of aircraft and their innovators that would last for decades, in the quest to control one of humanity’s most inspiring achievements. And it was the airship—not the airplane—that led the way. In the glittery 1920s, the count’s brilliant protégé, Hugo Eckener, achieved undreamed-of feats of daring and skill, including the extraordinary Round-the-World voyage of the Graf Zeppelin. At a time when America’s airplanes—rickety deathtraps held together by glue, screws, and luck—could barely make it from New York to Washington, D.C., Eckener’s airships serenely traversed oceans without a single crash, fatality, or injury. What Charles Lindbergh almost died doing—crossing the Atlantic in 1927—Eckener had effortlessly accomplished three years before the Spirit of St. Louis even took off. Even as the Nazis sought to exploit Zeppelins for their own nefarious purposes, Eckener built his masterwork, the behemoth Hindenburg—a marvel of design and engineering. Determined to forge an airline empire under the new flagship, Eckener met his match in Juan Trippe, the ruthlessly ambitious king of Pan American Airways, who believed his fleet of next-generation planes would vanquish Eckener’s coming airship armada. It was a fight only one man—and one technology—could win. Countering each other’s moves on the global chessboard, each seeking to wrest the advantage from his rival, the struggle for mastery of the air was a clash not only of technologies but of business, diplomacy, politics, personalities, and the two men’s vastly different dreams of the future. Empires of the Sky is the sweeping, untold tale of the duel that transfixed the world and helped create our modern age.