This paper outlines a new approach to the study of power, that of the sociology of translation. Starting from three principles, those of agnosticism (impartiality between actors engaged in controversy), generalised symmetry (the commitment to explain conflicting viewpoints in the same terms) and free association (the abandonment of all a priori distinctions between the natural and the social), the paper describes a scientific and economic controversy about the causes for the decline in the population of scallops in St. Brieuc Bay and the attempts by three marine biologists to develop a conservation strategy for that population. Four ‘moments’ of translation are discerned in the attempts by these researchers to impose themselves and their definition of the situation on others: (a) problematisation: the researchers sought to become indispensable to other actors in the drama by denning the nature and the problems of the latter and then suggesting that these would be resolved if the actors negotiated the ‘obl...

Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay

This paper outlines a new approach to the study of power, that of the sociology of translation. Starting from three principles, those of agnosticism (impartiality between actors engaged in controversy), generalised symmetry (the commitment to explain conflicting viewpoints in the same terms) and free association (the abandonment of all a priori distinctions between the natural and the social), the paper describes a scientific and economic controversy about the causes for the decline in the population of scallops in St. Brieuc Bay and the attempts by three marine biologists to develop a conservation strategy for that population. Four ‘moments’ of translation are discerned in the attempts by these researchers to impose themselves and their definition of the situation on others: (a) problematisation: the researchers sought to become indispensable to other actors in the drama by defining the nature and the problems of the latter and then suggesting that these would be resolved if the actors negotiated the ‘obligatory passage point’ of the researchers’ programme of investigation; (b) interessement: a series of processes by which the researchers sought to lock the other actors into the roles that had been proposed for them in that programme; (c) enrolment: a set of strategies in which the researchers sought to define and interrelate the various roles they had allocated to others; (d) mobilisation: a set of methods used by the researchers to ensure that supposed spokesmen for various relevant collectivities were properly able to represent those collectivities and not betrayed by the latter. In conclusion it is noted that translation is a process, never a completed accomplishment, and it may (as in the empirical case considered) fail.

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Why do people think and act politically in the manner they do? Despite the foundational nature of this question, answers are unfortunately incomplete and unnecessarily tentative, largely because political scientists do not take seriously the possibility of nonenvironmental influences. The suggestion that people could be born with political predispositions strikes many as far-fetched, odd, even perverse. However, researchers in other disciplines—‐ notably behavioral genetics—‐have uncovered a substantial heritable component for many social attitudes and behaviors and it seems unlikely that political attitudes and behaviors are completely immune from such forces. In this article, we combine relevant findings in behavioral genetics with our own analysis of data on a large sample of twins to test the hypothesis that, contrary to the assumptions embedded in political science research, political attitudes have genetic as well as environmental causes. 1

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=poliscifacpub

Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted

In what case do you like reading so much? What about the type of the the muqaddimah an introduction to history book? The needs to read? Well, everybody has their own reason why should read some books. Mostly, it will relate to their necessity to get knowledge from the book and want to read just to get entertainment. Novels, story book, and other entertaining books become so popular this day. Besides, the scientific books will also be the best reason to choose, especially for the students, teachers, doctors, businessman, and other professions who are fond of reading.

The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History

Recent applications of the 'strong programme' in the social study of science involve (I) appeals for a 'naturalistic' study of science and (II) the invocation of 'interests' as an explanatory resource. It is argued that the notion of 'naturalism' is insufficiently clear and that attempts to 'identify' interests neglect important features of scientific practice. Studies of the content of scientific knowledge have proceeded at the expense of attention to the character of argument Itself. A detailed examination of one example of the many recent case studies hrghlights a series of explanatory strategies used to gloss the fundamental difficulties of 'interests explanation'. It is argued that rather than unreflectively attempting to 'reveal' interests it is more appropriate to turn our attention to the management of explanatory strategies in the practice of scientific argument.

Interests and Explanation in the Social Study of Science

A pioneer and major thinker in the sociology of science, Joseph Ben-David wrote with refreshing directness on questions central to the history and sociology of science. As they are combined here, Ben-David's essays reveal the richness and synthetic power of his intellect in a way his separate publications never did. Two themes form the heart of Ben-David's ground-breaking work: the emergence, existence, and growth of science as a distinctive activity within society, governed by a specific "scientific ethos"; and the social construction both of new objects of scientific study and of new scientific disciplines.Ben-David argues that only where the scientist's social role is institutionalized (i.e., recognized as legitimate by society at large), can science as a sustained and continuous activity exist and thrive. By the same token, new scientific objects and disciplines emerge where social circumstances encourage and sustain new ("hybridized") social roles.Ben-David's is a distinctly historical sociology of science, providing a theoretical framework capable of integrating both the historical and the synchronic approaches; it is also complementary to the perspective of the sociology of scientific knowledge.

Scientific Growth: Essays on the Social Organization and Ethos of Science

L'A. decrit la place de la science et de la philosophie au sein des communautes juives medievales d'expression hebraique du Midi de la France en deux parties: (1) la reception des sciences greco-arabes dans les communautes juives de la France meridionale, (2) les limites de l'appropriation des sciences et leur role dans ces communautes. La science qui a le plus profite de l'attention des savants juifs est l'astronomie. Au cours du XIII e siecle, la philosophie et les sciences greco-arabes sont devenues une partie integrante de la Weltanschauung d'une grande partie des juifs en Espagne et dans le Midi de la France, mais sans que cette fonction sociale entraine une demande de connaissances scientifiques specialisees. L'originalite et la creativite des juifs de langue hebraique du Midi de la France et de l'Espagne se manifestent ailleurs que dans la science: soit dans la halakhah, soit dans la mystique

Les sciences dans les communautés juives médiévales de Provence

ILLIAM GILBERT, the author of De magnete (1600) and the acknowledged father of magnetic and electrical sciences, has been the object of conflicting views: where some have discerned the first experimental philosopher, the \"transcendent genius\" of \"a marvelous originality of thought,\" others have seen nothing but \"a moderate peripatetic\" whose \"philosophy of nature does not move far from scholastic philosophy, except away from its logical consistency.\"1 Indeed, Gilbert's work can give the impression that his experimental method and his positive magnetic and electrical discoveries contrast with what might appear to be a backward-looking hodgepodge of Peripatetic and animistic philosophies of nature. In this paper I shall concentrate on Gilbert's theory of matter in order to show both how it evolved gradually out of the postulate that the (magnetic) earth was rotating and how far it in fact departed from the Peripatetic elemental theory. Gilbert's was the first seventeenth-century physics compatible with a non-Ptolemaic cosmology, and it succeeded fairly well in accounting for many important relevant phenomena. Although it still conformed to some metatheoretical notions of Aristotelian physics, its concepts cut across received distinctions and classifications. The traditional aspect of the theory is largely due to Gilbert's continued usage of scholastic terms, many of which he endowed, however, with new meanings. This Peripatetic vocabulary was liable to mislead not only modern historians, but also Gilbert's contemporaries. In this study, therefore, I try to reconstruct both the course of Gilbert's own thinking and the impressions his affirmations made on contemporary ears, informed by Peripatetic, Paracelsian, or alchemical thought. I shall limit the analysis to De magnete, whose lack of influence on the theory of matter, to which it was highly relevant, I shall try to explain.2

Theory of Matter and Cosmology in William Gilbert's De magnete

All of Abraham Ibn Ezra's exegetical, grammatical, theological, and scientific compositions, written after his arrival in Rome in 1140, are listed chrono-logically in tabular form. The dates assigned to Ibn Ezra's works range from certain to very probable to probable to unknown; the table includes this information. Each entry in the table is accompanied by a detailed note pre-senting the relevant primary sources and scholarly literature on which the dating is based. The rationale behind the table is that one must consider an author's writings in the order of their composition in order to understand his or her intellectual evolution

Abraham Ibn Ezra's Scholarly Writings: A Chronological Listing

This book offers an original account of one of Aristotle's central doctrines, his theory of material substance. Gad Freudenthal argues that Aristotle's concept of heat is a crucial but hitherto ignored part of this account. Aristotle's 'canonical', four-element theory of matter fails to explain the coming-to-be of material substances (the way matter becomes organised) and their persistence (why substances do not disintegrate into their components). Interpreters have highlighted Aristotle's claim that soul is the active cause of the coming-to-be and persistence of living beings. Dr Freudenthal draws on dispersed remarks in Aristotle's writings, to argue that Aristotle in parallel also draws on a comprehensive 'naturalistic' theory, which accounts for material persistence through the concepts of heat, specifically vital heat, and connate pneuma. This theory, which bears also on the higher soul-functions, is central in Aristotle's understanding of the relationship between matter and form, body and soul. Dr Freudenthal aims not only to recover this theory and to highlight its explanatory roles, but also to make suggestions concerning its origin in Presocratic thought and in Aristotle's own early theology. He further offers a brief review of how later ages came to grips with the difficulties inherent in the received version of Aristotle's matter theory. This book is an important contribution to the proper understanding of a central Aristotelian doctrine, which straddles 'chemistry', biology, the theory of soul, and metaphysics.

Gad Freudenthal

Papers

Scientific Growth: Essays on the Social Organization and Ethos of Science

Les sciences dans les communautés juives médiévales de Provence

Theory of Matter and Cosmology in William Gilbert's De magnete

Abraham Ibn Ezra's Scholarly Writings: A Chronological Listing

Aristotle's theory of material substance : heat and pneuma, form and soul