The Materialist Dialectic in Boris Hessen’s Newton Papers (1927 and 1931)

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 202-234
Author(s):  
Sean Winkler
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Externalist Approach ◽  
Materialist Dialectic

Abstract Boris Hessen’s ‘The Social and Economic Roots of Newton’s Principia’ (see https://doi.org./10.1163/1569206X-00002041) is considered a pioneering work in the historiography of the natural sciences. For some, it marks the founding moment of the ‘externalist’ approach to this field of study. Previously, Hessen published another paper on Newton entitled ‘Preface to Articles by A. Einstein and J.J. Thomson’, which, some maintain, bears a stronger resemblance to works in the ‘internalist’ camp of the historiography of the natural sciences. For decades, scholars have puzzled over why Hessen chose to argue for, seemingly, diametrically opposed positions. In this paper, however, I argue that Hessen does not advance two different historiographical methods, but a single, dialectical-materialist approach that accounts for the ‘unity in opposition’ of the external and internal dimensions of natural-scientific theory. I draw from Hessen’s two papers on Newton, his previously untranslated writings, as well as selections from the secondary literature.

scholarly journals Astrobioethics

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Octavio A. Chon-Torres
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Planetary Protection ◽  
Protection Policy ◽  
The Social

AbstractAstrobiology is a discipline that is expanding its field of investigation not only in the natural sciences, but also in the social sciences. It is for this reason that the ethical aspects are progressively emphasized leading to a point where the whole field requires a specific handling. The appellation ‘astrobioethics’ is now considered as not only relevant, but also a true issue for the future of Astrobiology. Astrobioethics is the subsection within astrobiology that is accountable for studying the moral implications of, for example, bringing humans to Mars, the Planetary Protection Policy, the social responsibility of the astrobiologist to society, etc. It is in this way that the present article outlines a path for astrobioethics, as being a fertile field of study and an opportunity to trade scientific knowledge in a transdisciplinary way.

Инфраструктурные перегрузки как дисбаланс городской среды// Journal of Technical and Natural Sciences 5(14), 2019/ RELF Group & OEAPS Inc.(Open European Academy of Public Sciences); Chief Editor Vitaly Yakovlev- Berlin, Germany. 26.09.2019: OEAPS Inc., 2019. - PP. 37-43.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Татьяна Андреевна Водчиц
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Chief Editor ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
European Academy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
The City

В предложенной статье поднята на рассмотрение общераспространённая проблематика напряженного состояния социальной инфраструктуры города на примере Москвы. Также берется к рассмотрению тот факт, что растущая инфраструктура – одна из глобальных проблем мегаполиса. Выявлены основные причины формирования дисбаланса городской среды. Предложен ряд способов возможного решения данной задачи.In the proposed article, the widespread problems of the tense state of the social infrastructure of the city are raised for consideration. Also taken into consideration is the fact that the growing infrastructure is one of the global problems of the metropolis. The main causes of the imbalance of the urban environment are revealed. A number of possible solutions to this problem are proposed.

Defending the Difference

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Natural Entities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Methodological Difference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One

Dreyfus argues that there is a basic methodological difference between the natural sciences and the social sciences, a difference that derives from the different goals and practices of each. He goes on to argue that being a realist about natural entities is compatible with pluralism or, as he calls it, “plural realism.” If intelligibility is always grounded in our practices, Dreyfus points out, then there is no point of view from which one can ask about or provide an answer to the one true nature of ultimate reality. But that is consistent with believing that the natural sciences can still reveal the way the world is independent of our theories and practices.

The Anthropological Lens

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Morton
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Social Accountability ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Local People ◽  
South Sudanese ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Anthropological Literature ◽  
Insight Into

Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973) is widely considered the most influential British anthropologist of the twentieth century, known to generations of students for his seminal works on South Sudanese ethnography Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (OUP 1937) and The Nuer (OUP 1940). In these works, now classics in the anthropological literature, Evans-Pritchard broke new ground on questions of rationality, social accountability, kinship, social and political organization, and religion, as well as influentially moving the discipline in Britain away from the natural sciences and towards history. Yet despite much discussion about his theoretical contributions to anthropology, no study has yet explored his fieldwork in detail in order to get a better understanding of its historical contexts, local circumstances or the social encounters out of which it emerged. This book then is just such an exploration, of Evans-Pritchard the fieldworker through the lens of his fieldwork photography. Through an engagement with his photographic archive, and by thinking with it alongside his written ethnographies and other unpublished evidence, the book offers a new insight into the way in which Evans-Pritchard’s theoretical contributions to the discipline were shaped by his fieldwork and the numerous local people in Africa with whom he collaborated. By writing history through field photographs we move back towards the fieldwork experiences, exploring the vivid traces, lived realities and local presences at the heart of the social encounter that formed the basis of Evans-Pritchard’s anthropology.

Guide to Africa Bibliography

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. xxix-xxx
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Development Studies ◽  
Environmental Sciences ◽  
African Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Cover Material

This bibliography records publications on Africa of interest to students of Africa, principally in the social and environmental sciences, development studies, humanities and arts. Some items from the medical, biological and natural sciences are included. The criterion used is potential relevance to a reader from a social sciences/arts background. The whole continent and associated islands are covered, with selective coverage of the diaspora. This volume aims to cover material published in 2019 together with items from earlier years not previously listed. The editor is always very glad to hear of any items omitted so that they may be included in future volumes. He would be particularly pleased to receive notification of new periodicals, print or online. African government publications and works of creative literature are not normally listed.

scholarly journals Dialogues between social and natural sciences: contribution to the debate on socio-environmental conflicts

2015 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 2335-2348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Milanez
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Environmental Conflicts ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mining Projects ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Strong Candidate ◽  
Social Environmental

ABSTRACT In this article, I argue that attempting to solve real problems is a possible approach to bring social and natural sciences together, and suggest that - as Environmental Impact Assessment necessarily brings together social and environmental issues - this debate is a strong candidate for such a task. The argument is based on a general discussion about the possibilities and limitations of Environmental Impact Assessments, the social-environmental impacts of mining activities and three case studies. The analysis of the cases indicates possibilities and limitations of the dialogue between scientists from various areas - and of the collaboration with social movements and affected communities - in avoiding negative impacts of mining projects and, eventually, increasing their sustainability.

Dialectic in the Hands of a Handwerker: Joseph Dietzgen and the Humble Beginnings of Dialectical Materialism

2021 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-384
Author(s):  
Eric-John Russell
Keyword(s):  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Dialectical Materialism ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Dialectical Method ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Marxist Ideology ◽  
The Status ◽  
German Worker ◽  
Materialist Dialectic

Engels once remarked to Marx that the “materialist dialectic, which for years has been our best working tool and our sharpest weapon, was, remarkably enough, discovered not only by us but also, independently of us and even of Hegel, by a German worker, Joseph Dietzgen.” The status of the dialectic, however, within what ought to instead be described as Dietzgen's inductive empiricism, is problematic. Dietzgen's work stands as a hitherto unacknowledged precursor to the Marxist ideology of Diamat. The first question is whether or not Marx's materialism ought to be conflated with Dietzgen's empiricism. Second, Dietzgen's efforts to establish a theory of human thought structured through the methods of the natural sciences requires critical evaluation. Although Dietzgen's works may anticipate some of the theoretical contours of Diamat, equating materialism with empiricism and rendering the dialectical method into a universal methodology on a par with the methods of the natural sciences, as pursued by Dietzgen, is a project that is perhaps not worthy of Marx's and Engels’ nominal veneration.

Assessing Contemporary Crises: Aligning Safety Science and Security Studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bibi van den Berg ◽  
Ruth Prins ◽  
Sanneke Kuipers
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Safety Science ◽  
Key Topics

Security and safety are key topics of concern in the globalized and interconnected world. While the terms “safety” and “security” are often used interchangeably in everyday life, in academia, security is mostly studied in the social sciences, while safety is predominantly studied in the natural sciences, engineering, and medicine. However, developments and incidents that negatively affect society increasingly contain both safety and security aspects. Therefore, an integrated perspective on security and safety is beneficial. Such a perspective studies hazardous and harmful events and phenomena in the full breadth of their complexity—including the cause of the event, the target that is harmed, and whether the harm is direct or indirect. This leads to a richer understanding of the nature of incidents and the effects they may have on individuals, collectives, societies, nation-states, and the world at large.

Pluralism in Education and Education in Pluralism

1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-84
Author(s):  
Stanley L. Jaki
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Trojan Horse ◽  
Religion And Theology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
Rational Thought ◽  
Scientific Ideas ◽  
Theology And Philosophy

The physicist and historian and philosopher of science Stanley L. Jaki first notes that the word “pluralism” has become a euphemism or Trojan horse for relativism. Valid, sound pluralism ought to entail an education in the plurality of subject matters and a respect and understanding for their separate, irreducible integrities and also their rational relatedness to one another. A non-relativist epistemology of universal validity and scope underlies and relates all the great bodies of knowledge and learning—the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, religion and theology, and philosophy itself. Unfortunately the term “pluralism” as now commonly used has confused or obscured this fundamental understanding, the invaluable legacy of rational thought since Plato. The misunderstanding of Einstein's conception of relativity is particularly damaging but typical of the misuse of modern scientific ideas by thinkers in other fields; Einstein's idea of relativity is unfortunately named, as it has nothing to do with epistemological or moral relativism, for neither of which it provides any warrant. All the subsets of rationality—the plurality of subject matters—comprise the universal set of rationality itself, a fact that Plato well understood and that needs to be understood today—perhaps now more than ever. Education need to safeguard and develop the invaluable common-sense human intuitions of the true and good as universal realities.

scholarly journals Guide to Africa Bibliography

2019 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. xxiii-xxiv
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Development Studies ◽  
Environmental Sciences ◽  
African Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Cover Material

This bibliography records publications on Africa of interest to students of Africa, principally in the social and environmental sciences, development studies, humanities and arts. Some items from the medical, biological and natural sciences are included. The criterion used is potential relevance to a reader from a social sciences/arts background. The whole continent and associated islands are covered, with selective coverage of the diaspora. This volume aims to cover material published in 2018 together with items from earlier years not previously listed. The editor is always very glad to hear of any items omitted so that they may be included in future volumes. He would be particularly pleased to receive notification of new periodicals, print or online. African government publications and works of creative literature are not normally listed.

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