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J Scott Hill

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, is an analysis of the history of science, published in 1962 by the University of Chicago Press. Its publication was a landmark event in the history, philosophy, and sociology of scientific knowledge and it triggered an ongoing worldwide assessment and reaction in—and beyond—those scholarly communities. In this work, Kuhn challenged the then prevailing view of progress in "normal science". Scientific progress had been seen primarily as "development-by-accumulation" of accepted facts and theories. Kuhn argued for an episodic model in which periods of such conceptual continuity in normal science were interrupted by periods of revolutionary science.
  • What is arguably the most famous example of a revolution in scientific thought is the Copernican Revolution. In Ptolemy's school of thought, cycles and epicycles (with some additional concepts) were used for modeling the movements of the planets in a cosmos that had a stationary Earth at its center. As accuracy of celestial observations increased, complexity of the Ptolemaic cyclical and epicyclical mechanisms had to increase to maintain the calculated planetary positions close to the observed positions. Copernicus proposed a cosmology in which the Sun was at the center and the Earth was one of the planets revolving around it.
  • Copernicus' contemporaries rejected his cosmology, and Kuhn asserts that they were quite right to do so: Copernicus' cosmology lacked credibility.
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  • In any community of scientists, Kuhn states, there are some individuals who are bolder than most. These scientists, judging that a crisis exists, embark on what Thomas Kuhn calls revolutionary science, exploring alternatives to long-held, obvious-seeming assumptions. Occasionally this generates a rival to the established framework of thought. The new candidate paradigm will appear to be accompanied by numerous anomalies, partly because it is still so new and incomplete. The majority of the scientific community will oppose any conceptual change, and, Kuhn emphasizes, so they should. To fulfill its potential, a scientific community needs to contain both individuals who are bold and individuals who are conservative.
  • If the actors in the pre-paradigm community eventually gravitate to one of these conceptual frameworks and ultimately to a widespread consensus on the appropriate choice of methods, terminology and on the kinds of experiment that are likely to contribute to increased insights, then the second phase, normal science, begins, in which puzzles are solved within the context of the dominant paradigm. As long as there is consensus within the discipline, normal science continues.
  • Those scientists who possess an exceptional ability to recognize a theory's potential will be the first whose preference is likely to shift in favour of the challenging paradigm. There typically follows a period in which there are adherents of both paradigms. In time, if the challenging paradigm is solidified and unified, it will replace the old paradigm, and a paradigm shift will have occurred.
  • Chronologically, Kuhn distinguishes between three phases. The first phase, which exists only once, is the pre-paradigm phase, in which there is no consensus on any particular theory, though the research being carried out can be considered scientific in nature. This phase is characterized by several incompatible and incomplete theories.
  • One of the aims of science is to find models that will account for as many observations as possible within a coherent framework. Together, Galileo's rethinking of the nature of motion and Keplerian cosmology represented a coherent framework that was capable of rivaling the Aristotelian/Ptolemaic framework.
  • Over time, progress in normal science may reveal anomalies, facts that are difficult to explain within the context of the existing paradigm. While usually these anomalies are resolved, in some cases they may accumulate to the point where normal science becomes difficult and where weaknesses in the old paradigm are revealed. Kuhn refers to this as a crisis. Crises are often resolved within the context of normal science. However, after significant efforts of normal science within a paradigm fail, science may enter the third phase, that of revolutionary science, in which the underlying assumptions of the field are reexamined and a new paradigm is established. After the new paradigm's dominance is established, scientists return to normal science, solving puzzles within the new paradigm.
  • SSR is viewed by postmodern and post-structuralist thinkers as having called into question the enterprise of science by demonstrating that scientific knowledge is dependent on the culture and historical circumstances of groups of scientists rather than on their adherence to a specific, definable method.
  • SSR has also been embraced by creationists who see creationism as an incommensurate worldview in contrast to naturalism while holding science as a valuable tool.[7]
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    Good highlights of Kuhn's book and the notion of Paradigm shift in science.
J Scott Hill

Scientific racism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

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    This page, while it has some problems, highlights the history of scientific racism and how these ideas have been used by politicians and the public to justify genocide, ethnocide, slavery, segregation, etc.  It also should give some idea of how these deeply entrenched attitudes linger in our society and continue to have some effect on continuing inequalities.
J Scott Hill

The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race - 5 views

  • With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence.
  • revisionist interpretation
  • Just count our advantages
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  • some of the longest and healthiest lives, in history
    • J Scott Hill
       
      Thomas Hobbes: 1651 Leviathan
  • nasty, brutish, and short
  • progressivist perspective
  • Planted crops yield far more tons per acre than roots and berries.
  • How do you show that the lives of people 10,000 years ago got better when they abandoned hunting and gathering for farming?
  • indirect test:
  • these people have plenty of leisure time, sleep a good deal, and work less hard than their farming neighbors.
  • obtaining food is only 12 to 19 hours for one group of Bushmen, 14 hours or less for the Hadza nomads of Tanzania.
    • J Scott Hill
       
      1st indirect test: looking at contemporary h-g...find their diet is adequate and they work very little.
  • the mix of wild plants and animals in the diets of surviving hunter-gatherers provides more protein and a bettter balance of other nutrients.
  • Life expectancy at birth in the pre-agricultural community was bout twenty-six years," says Armelagos, "but in the post-agricultural community it was nineteen years. So these episodes of nutritional stress and infectious disease were seriously affecting their ability to survive."
  • paleopathology, the study of signs of disease in the remains of ancient peoples.
  • Paleopathologists can also calculate growth rates by measuring bones of people of different ages, examine teeth for enamel defects (signs of childhood malnutrition), and recognize scars left on bones by anemia, tuberculosis, leprosy, and other diseases.
  • the average height of hunger-gatherers
  • a nearly 50 per cent increase in enamel defects indicative of malnutrition, a fourfold increase in iron-deficiency anemia (evidenced by a bone condition called porotic hyperostosis), a theefold rise in bone lesions reflecting infectious disease in general, and an increase in degenerative conditions of the spine, probably reflecting a lot of hard physical labor.
  • Archaeologists can date that switch by distinguishing remains of wild plants and animals from those of domesticated ones in prehistoric garbage dumps.
  • The farmers gained cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition, (today just three high-carbohydrate plants -- wheat, rice, and corn -- provide the bulk of the calories consumed by the human species, yet each one is deficient in certain vitamins or amino acids essential to life.) Second, because of dependence on a limited number of crops, farmers ran the risk of starvation if one crop failed.
  • many of which then carried on trade with other crowded societies, led to the spread of parasites and infectious disease.
  • deep class divisions.
  • there can be no kings, no class of social parasites who grow fat on food seized from others.
  • since the royal skeletons were two or three inches taller and had better teeth (on the average, one instead of six cavities or missing teeth).
  • Among Chilean mummies from c. A. D. 1000,
  • fourfold lower rate of bone lesions caused by disease.
  • I offered to pay some villagers to carry supplies from an airstrip to my mountain camp. The heaviest item was a 110-pound bag of rice, which I lashed to a pole and assigned to a team of four men to shoulder together. When I eventually caught up with the villagers, the men were carrying light loads, while one small woman weighing less than the bag of rice was bent under it, supporting its weight by a cord across her temples.
  • Instead of swallowing the progressivist party line that we chose agriculture because it was good for us, we must ask how we got trapped by it despite its pitfalls.
J Scott Hill

RACE - Are We So Different? :: A Project of the American Anthropological Association - 0 views

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    This cite is mentioned in Kottak's text...it has a lot of good information about Race.
J Scott Hill

It's Lose-Lose vs. Win-Win-Win-Win-Win - NYTimes.com - 2 views

  • Writing in this newspaper in support of a carbon tax back in 2007, N. Gregory Mankiw, the Harvard economist, who was a senior adviser to President George W. Bush and to Mitt Romney, argued that “the idea of using taxes to fix problems, rather than merely raise government revenue, has a long history.
  • Using a Pigovian tax to address global warming is also an old idea. It was proposed as far back as 1992 by Martin S. Feldstein on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal.
  • he federal deficit could be reduced by approximately $1.25 trillion over 10 years” — roughly what we are trying to do through the foolish sequester. Such a tax would add about 21 cents per gallon of gasoline and about 1.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity. It could be phased in gradually as the economy improves.
Parker Delmolino

The Costs and Consequences of Rwanda's Shift in Language Policy | Africa Portal - 0 views

  • Language policy in Rwanda has revolved around three languages — Kinyarwanda, the indigenous language of Rwandans, French and English
  • In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, the Rwandan government has worked strenuously to develop the country and construct a new national image; the shift in language policy from French to English is part of this ambitious project.
  • The Rwandan government’s decision to transition from French to English as the country’s main official language is part of the country’s play to join the East African Community (EAC) and to ease economic relations with its neighbours and South Africa.
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  • Kinyarwanda unifies the population because, unlike most other African countries, Rwanda only has this one indigenous language. Estimates show that almost 100 percent of the population speaks Kinyarwanda and 90 percent of the population speaks only Kinyarwanda
  • French was introduced as an official language in Rwanda during Belgium’s rule of the country from 1890 to 1962. Once a school system was established in French, Rwanda became a member of La Francophonie. The significance of French began to decrease after the 1994 genocide, under the new leadership’s obvious preference for English.
  • Two years after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took power in Rwanda, they declared English an official language alongside Kinyarwanda and French.
  • The decision to distance Rwanda from the French language also has implications for the country’s post-genocide identity project. It allows for a break from the colonial past and ties with Belgium and France, factors which the Rwandan government specifies as key in the development of genocidal ideology.
  • From 1996 to 2008 the language policy required the first three years of schooling be taught in Kinyarwanda, after which the students chose English or French as the primary language of instruction
  • Officially, the language shift is part of Rwanda’s membership in the EAC and economic relations with other member states.
  • Rwanda’s economic problems are serious. Overpopulation and struggles over land continue to challenge the country and its path toward development and prosperity. Policymakers expect that a move toward adopting the English language will accelerate the country’s ability to improve standards of living and facilitate national reconciliation.
  • Overall, the Rwandan population has a positive attitude towards the use of English language: they perceive English as a valuable commodity (Samuelson and Freedman, 2010: 203). It is important, however, to keep Rwandan realities in perspective when examining policies.
  • The implementation of English as the official language of instruction has led to serious hurdles in the Rwandan education system. Among them has been establishing a teaching force fluent in English.
  • To this end, the government has taken ambitious steps to change how Rwandans perceive their identity.
  • Yet, there are problems with using English as the only language of work. Particular identities and sections of society are linked to this language more than others, putting English-speaking groups at an advantage in socioeconomic relations, and non-English speaking groups at a disadvantage.
J Scott Hill

Anthropological Niche of Douglas W. Hume - Darkness in El Dorado - 6 views

  • We write to inform you of an impending scandal that will affect the American Anthropological profession as a whole in the eyes of the public, and arouse intense indignation and calls for action among members of the Association. In its scale, ramifications, and sheer criminality and corruption it is unparalleled in the history of Anthropology... (Turner & Sponsel letter) This website is dedicated to providing a place to find information about Patrick Tierney's Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon.
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    This website by Douglas Hume contains an immense amount of material concerning the controversy resulting from Patrick Tierney's book, darkness in El Dorado.  Please read through this site and use you personal library in Diigo to create a database of sources you will use in our discussion/debate next week.
J Scott Hill

Marcel Mauss - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • n his classic work The Gift, Mauss argued that gifts are never "free". Rather, human history is full of examples that gifts give rise to reciprocal exchange. The famous question that drove his inquiry into the anthropology of the gift was: "What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?" (1990:3). The answer is simple: the gift is a "total prestation", imbued with "spiritual mechanisms", engaging the honour of both giver and receiver (the term "total prestation" or "total social fact" (fait social total) was coined by his student Maurice Leenhardt after Durkheim's social fact).
  • The giver does not merely give an object but also part of himself, for the object is indissolubly tied to the giver: "the objects are never completely separated from the men who exchange them" (1990:31). Because of this bond between giver and gift, the act of giving creates a social bond with an obligation to reciprocate on part of the recipient. To not reciprocate means to lose honour and status, but the spiritual implications can be even worse: in Polynesia, failure to reciprocate means to lose mana, one's spiritual source of authority and wealth.
  • In a gift economy, however, the objects that are given are inalienated from the givers; they are "loaned rather than sold and ceded". It is the fact that the identity of the giver is invariably bound up with the object given that causes the gift to have a power which compels the recipient to reciprocate. Because gifts are inalienable they must be returned; the act of giving creates a gift-debt that has to be repaid
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