The intellectual origins of molecular biology are usually traced back to the 1930s. By contrast, molecular biology acquired a social reality only around 1960. To understand how it came to designate a community of researchers and a professional identity, I examine the creation of the first institutes of molecular biology, which took place around 1960, in four European countries: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Switzerland. This paper shows how the creation of these institutes was linked to the results of (...) post-war economic reconstruction. Then, it compares how the promoters of these different institutional projects delimited the goals of their discipline, reflected on its history, and suggested how research should be organised. I show how they carefully positioned their new discipline within the emerging national science policy discourse of the 1950s, and aligned it with the current vision of scientific modernity. In particular, I discuss how they articulated the meaning of molecular biology with respect to five common themes: the role of physics in the atomic age, the relations between fundamental research and medical applications, the 'Americanisation' of scientific research, the value of science in the reconstruction of national identities, and the drive towards interdisciplinary research. This paper thus demonstrates that beyond the local and national accounts there is a European history of molecular biology. (shrink)

An enthusiastic and not completely implausible attempt to interpret Aristotle as a "thoroughgoing behaviorist. He is, of course, a functional and contextual behaviorist, not a mechanistic behaviorist. For him, life is the power of living and knowing, the power of selective response to the world." Randall sees in Aristotle a disturbing and philosophically inexplicable tendency to "platonize" in the Organon, the De Caelo, Bk. X of the Ethics, and so on. The physical treatises, the Politics and Ethics, the Poetics and (...) Rhetoric, however, expose the "Aristotelian" side of Aristotle, since they deal with the powers of selective response and the variety of natural processes, as well as offering a method for achieving practical aims.--J. B. (shrink)

This lucid and compact book contains a forceful critique of the "wave-particle duality" interpretations of quantum theory, and a unitary particle theory which explains the quantum rules in terms of non-quantal axioms. To speak of a wave-particle duality, says Landé, is to speak of an abstraction and a real thing as if they were on a level of parity; and he takes Born's statistical interpretation of quantum phenomena as evidence that a unitary particle theory is needed. The problem then is (...) to explain why particles obey quantum laws of interference and h-dominated periodicity. Although much of the book assumes knowledge of mathematics and physics, many sections require no scientific background; and in the more technical sections there are frequent summaries which state the arguments and conclusions in a non-mathematical way. An incisive and provocative work which deserves to be widely read.--B. J. H. (shrink)

This book, besides meeting a definite need in the field of Kantian ethical studies, is excellent. Professor Beck treats the Practical Reason as an exemplification of a general Kantian method applied to problems organic to the Kantian system as a whole. His interpretation of the 'Transcendental deduction' of the Principle of Pure Practical Reason is particularly brilliant; the Principle is shown to be established in precisely the form required for a complete resolution of the third antinomy of the Critique of (...) Pure Reason, and the procedure has the further warrant of showing the validity of the "deduction" of chapter III of the "Grundlegung."--J. B. (shrink)

Many of the selections included are readily available, but the editor has earned our gratitude for reprinting the series of seven papers read before the Aristotelian Society from 1915-1923, and for making readily accessible the 1927 essay, "Time." The somewhat lengthy introduction adds little to the value of the book, and is occasionally inaccurate. --B. J. H.

Sherburne has the two-fold purpose of framing an aesthetic theory which gains its coherence and clarity by its derivation from a speculative system, and of exploring the adequacy of that system by applying it to one dimension of experience. He begins by developing clearly the categorial notions of Whitehead's mature philosophy and exhibiting them as integral parts of the speculative scheme, and in some cases revising and reformulating them significantly. Using this material, he then frames an aesthetic theory treating such (...) questions as the ontological status of a work of art, aesthetic experience, and artistic creation. A well-written study that illuminates some of the more difficult aspects of Whitehead's thought, and contributes to the discussion of the metaphysical issues of aesthetics.--B. J. H. (shrink)

Twenty-four scientists and philosophers contribute to this volume, which constitutes the proceedings of the 1959 meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Six symposia deal with theory construction; empirical and conventional elements in physical theory; induction, probability and simplicity; the logic of variables and constants; philosophical issues of quantum theory; and the methodology of psychology and the social sciences. Many of the contributions are excellent; most deal with controversial issues, and generate considerable life in the discussions and (...) commentaries.--B. J. H. (shrink)

This historico-critical analysis of the concept of mass is the third in Jammer's series of studies of fundamental physical concepts. His fascinating account traces its intricate historical evolution from early notions of matter and the medieval concept of mass as quantitas materiae to the dynamic conceptions of mass. The concept is followed through the three stages of conceptualization ; systematization ; and formalization. Jammer further treats mass in relation to the electromagnetic theories; special and general relativity; quantum mechanics and the (...) theory of elementary particles; and the modern "space-theories" of matter. He concludes that no final clarification of the concept has yet been attained, despite the efforts of both physicists and philosophers. This difficult material is handled with great scholarship and control, skillfully interpreted, and concisely presented --B. J. H. (shrink)

In this introduction to social problems, sixteen social scientists discuss the major forms of deviant behavior and social disorganization. The introduction attempts to elicit the general theoretical orientation which is implicit in the specialized studies making up the main body of the book.--B. J. H.

Taking as its central question, "How do bodies act on one another across space?", this book traces the answers which have been given from the Pre-Socratics to current physical theory. The basic thought guiding the discussion is that the conceived mode of action between bodies is a general property exhibited by the model of a current physical theory. The study is rich in primary material, and carefully documented throughout; it fulfills a long-felt need for a thorough and careful treatment of (...) this subject.--B. J. H. (shrink)

Rejecting the idea that the principal aim of science is prediction, the author claims that science tries to create an explanatory intelligible system "with some legitimate claim to reality"; he argues that the intellectual framework within which this construction proceeds is revealed more by its presuppositions and its "explanatory paradigms" or "ideals of natural order" than by its detailed results. Comparing the dynamical theories of Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton, he asks which occurrences are "phenomena" for these theories, i.e., deviations from (...) the expected standard manner in which bodies move. He concludes that to explain a phenomenon is to show that it is a special case of, or a complex combination of, paradigms taken as fundamental, and that theories are not to be judged as true or false, but as helpful, fruitful, misleading, and the like. --B. J. H. (shrink)

A sensitive and intelligent inquiry into the nature of mysticism, with special emphasis upon the question as to whether mystical experience is subjective only, or can reasonably be said to refer to an objective reality. There are also careful and valuable discussions of the relation of mysticism to religion and ethics, and of its implications for logic, language, and a theory of immortality.--J. A. B.