Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science

by Paul R. Gross, Norman Levitt

Overview

The widely acclaimed response to the postmodernists attacks on science, with a new afterword.

With the emergence of "cultural studies" and the blurring of once-clear academic boundaries, scholars are turning to subjects far outside their traditional disciplines and areas of expertise. In Higher Superstition scientists Paul Gross and Norman Levitt raise serious questions about the growing criticism of science by humanists and social scientists on the "academic left." This edition of Higher Superstition includes a new afterword by the authors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421404875
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	12/03/1997
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	348
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Paul R. Gross, former director and president of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, is University Professor of Life Sciences, Emeritus, at the University of Virginia and a visiting scholar at Harvard University. Norman Levitt is professor of mathematics at Rutgers University and the author of Grassmannians and Gauss Maps in Piecewise-Linear Topology.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 1998 Edition
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. The Academic Left and Science
Chapter 2. Some History and Politics: Natural Science and its Natural Enemies
Chapter 3. The Cultural Construction of Cultural Constructivism
Chapter 4. The Realm of Idle Phrases: Postmodernism, Literary Theory, and Cultural Criticism
Chapter 5. Auspicating Gender
Chapter 6. The Gates of Eden
Chapter 7. The Schools of Indictment
Chapter 8. Why Do the People Imagine a Vain Thing?
Chapter 9. Does it Matter?
Notes
Supplementary Notes to the 1998 Edition
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

An original, brilliant, and important book. The authors clarify the impact, mostly malign, of postmodernism—at least postmodernism in the hands of the second-rate—on the evolving curriculum in higher education.
—Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University

Edward O. Wilson

An original, brilliant, and important book. The authors clarify the impact, mostly malign, of postmodernism—at least postmodernism in the hands of the second-rate—on the evolving curriculum in higher education.

— Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University

Editorial Reviews

A prominent life scientist and a prominent mathematician decry the deconstruction of scientific texts by literary critics and the rejection of scientific patriarchy by feminists, warning that 300 years of scientific achievement are under fire from scholars who know almost nothing about science. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Higher Superstition moves rapidly from theme to theme, taking no prisoners and leaving no doubt about the authors' thesis.
— Books & Culture

Mark Noll

At last, somebody has performed the invaluable service of exploding the pretentions of those who think every equation derived this century undermines the fabric of western thought.
--New Statesman

We should be thankful that Gross and Levitt have provided a wake-up call. Their significant overview of the thinking of those who teach our lawyers, journalists and teachers should be read by all who are concerned by the decline of the status of science in our times.
--Physics Today

The authors' shredding of such luminaries of postmodernism and feminism as Stanley Aronowitz, Sandra Harding, and Evelyn fox Keller, among others, is not always charitable, [but] it is invariably compelling and frequently devastating.
--Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Washington Times

From the Publisher

We should be thankful that Gross and Levitt have provided a wake-up call. Their significant overview of the thinking of those who teach our lawyers, journalists and teachers should be read by all who are concerned by the decline of the status of science in our times.

Physics Today

At last, somebody has performed the invaluable service of exploding the pretentions of those who think every equation derived this century undermines the fabric of western thought.

New Statesman

The authors' shredding of such luminaries of postmodernism and feminism as Stanley Aronowitz, Sandra Harding, and Evelyn fox Keller, among others, is not always charitable, [but] it is invariably compelling and frequently devastating.

Washington Times - Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

The authors' shredding of such luminaries of postmodernism and feminism as Stanley Aronowitz, Sandra Harding, and Evelyn fox Keller, among others, is not always charitable, [but] it is invariably compelling and frequently devastating.

— Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

Washington Times