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The concept of eccentricity was central to how people in the nineteenth century understood their world. This monograph is the first scholarly history of eccentricity. Carroll explores how discourses of eccentricity were established to make sense of individuals who did not seem to fit within an increasingly organized social and economic order. She focuses on the self-taught natural philosopher William Martin, the fossilist Thomas Hawkins and the taxidermist Charles Waterton.

A Nuanced Analysis of Perceptions about the Relationship between Evolutionary Science, Religion, and Personal Belief

This book focuses on the “biosocial visions” shared by early gerontologists in American and British science and culture from the early to mid-twentieth century who believed the phenomenon of aging was not just biological, but social in nature. Advancements in the life sciences, together with shifting perspectives on the state and future of the elderly in society, informed how gerontologists interacted with seniors, and how they defined successful aging. Park shows how these visions shaped popular discourses on aging, directly influenced the institutionalization of gerontology, and also reflected the class, gender, and race biases of their founders.

Philosophers, sociologists, and historians of science offer a multidisciplinary view of the complex interrelationships of values in science and society, in both contemporary and historic contexts. They analyze the impact of commercialization and politicization on epistemic aspirations, and conversely, the ethical dilemmas raised by “practically relevant” science in today’s society.

Divine Destiny and the Popularization of Space Exploration in America

Reconsidering the Distinction between Scientific Discovery and Travel Writing in International Arctic Explorations

This study explores the science and culture of nineteenth-century British arboretums, or tree collections. The development of arboretums was fostered by a variety of factors, each of which is explored in detail: global trade and exploration, the popularity of collecting, the significance to the British economy and society, developments in Enlightenment science, changes in landscape gardening aesthetics and agricultural and horticultural improvement.Arboretums were idealized as microcosms of nature, miniature encapsulations of the globe and as living museums. This book critically examines different kinds of arboretum in order to understand the changing practical, scientific, aesthetic and pedagogical principles that underpinned their design, display and the way in which they were viewed. It is the first study of its kind and fills a gap in the literature on Victorian science and culture.

The essays in this collection ask us to confront the toxic landscapes that pervade modern life using the example of exposure of people in four countries to nuclear radiation, industrial waste, pesticides and future biological warfare.

This collection of essays reexamines the origins of logical empiricism and offers fresh insights into its relationship to contemporary philosophy of science.

Explores Public-Interest Science as a Potential Alternative to Commodification

How did the brewing of beer become a scientific process? James Sumner explores this question by charting the theory and practice of the trade in Britain and Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

This book offers a critical overview and a new structure of the debate on unity versus plurality in science. It focuses on the methodological, epistemic, and metaphysical commitments of various philosophical attitudes surrounding monism and pluralism, and offers novel perspectives and pluralist theses on scientific methods and objects, reductionism, plurality of representations, natural kinds, and scientific classifications.

What makes a good experiment? Although experimental evidence plays an essential role in science, there is no algorithm or simple set of criteria for ranking or evaluating good experiments, and therefore no definitive answer to the question. Experiments can, in fact, be good in any number of ways: conceptually good, methodologically good, technically good, and pedagogically important. This book provides details of good experiments, with examples from physics and biology.

Illuminates the Diverse Communities of Victorian Insect Collectors Who Contributed to the Study of Natural History

Investigates the Ways World’s Fairs Expressed and Provoked Cold War Culture