Hardback | |
August 31, 2022 | |
9789633865965 | |
English | |
404 | |
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1.57 Pounds (US) | |
$95.00 USD, £68.00 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Paperback / softback | |
September 10, 2022 | |
9789633865811 | |
English | |
404 | |
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1.2 Pounds (US) | |
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The Triumph of Uncertainty
Science and Self in the Postmodern Age
Tauber, a leading figure in history and philosophy of science, offers a unique autobiographical overview of how science as a discipline of thought has been characterized by philosophers and historians over the past century. He frames his account through science's – and his own personal – quest for explanatory certainty.
During the 20th century, that goal was displaced by the probabilistic epistemologies required to characterize complex systems, whether in physics, biology, economics, or the social sciences. This "triumph of uncertainty" is the inevitable outcome of irreducible chance and indeterminate causality. And beyond these epistemological limits, the interpretative faculties of the individual scientist (what Michael Polanyi called the "personal" and the "tacit") invariably affects how data are understood. Whereas positivism had claimed radical objectivity, post-positivists have identified how a web of non-epistemic values and social forces profoundly influence the production of knowledge.
Tauber presents a case study of these claims by showing how immunology has incorporated extra-curricular social elements in its theoretical development and how these in turn have influenced interpretive problems swirling around biological identity, individuality, and cognition. The correspondence between contemporary immunology and cultural notions of selfhood are strong and striking. Just as uncertainty haunts science, so too does it hover over current constructions of personal identity, self knowledge, and moral agency. Across the chasm of uncertainty, science and selfhood speak.
About the Author
Endorsements
"Fred Tauber has written a brilliant book. At once autobiography, intellectual history, and theory of immunology, Tauber focuses less on self/nonself discriminations than on the symbiotic relationship between antibodies (anti-foreign bodies) and antigens (antibody generators). But it is not only Tauber's original ideas about immunology that matter. What also makes The Triumph of Uncertainty memorable is its personal origins. Anyone contemplating a career in medical science should read this book. So too should seasoned immunologists, and all clinician charged with explaining immune responses to unsettled patients."—A. David Napier
"While Tauber's book is intensely personal, it yet manages to break new philosophical ground while displaying varied interdisciplinary scholarship."—Sahota Sarkar
Central European University Press | |
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Hardback | |
August 31, 2022 | |
9789633865965 | |
English | |
404 | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
1.57 Pounds (US) | |
$95.00 USD, £68.00 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Paperback / softback | |
September 10, 2022 | |
9789633865811 | |
English | |
404 | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
1.2 Pounds (US) | |
$32.00 USD, £23.00 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Other Titles in BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Philosophers
Royce's Voyage Down Under
The Politics of Motion
Torchbearer of Freedom
Other Titles in Memoirs
A Life for Belarus
Traveler, Scholar, Political Adventurer
Departure Stories