From: L-Soft list server at St. John's University (1.8c) To: Ian Pitchford Subject: File: "SCI-CULT LOG9801" Date: Wednesday, August 12, 1998 11:31 PM ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 12:40:58 -0500 Reply-To: wderzko@pathcom.com Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: "Walter Derzko, Director Idea Lab" Subject: Opportuni-Tease #1 - Thought Switches X-To: List CYBERMIND MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Opportuni-Tease #1 - Thought Switches Don Bell today writes in Cybermind Digest ( Jan 1) about a "thought switch". I thought I'd use his provocation to lauch a weekly posting - Opportuni-Tease to stimulate your thinking. I have a long list of recent breakthrough technologies, science concepts and research that is still in the pilot or lab stages. They have been selected because they have the potential to "shock" your life, career, job or business. I think it would be useful to explore the potential social impact before these breakthroughs actually hit the market. It would provide the opportunity to mitigate/redesign any potential negative social impacts and enhance the positive ones Please help me in this exploration by addressing the four questions below: ( often asked by Marshal McLuhan-from McLuhan's Tetrad model): This week's Opportuni-Tease: Week #1-The Thought Switches (see backgrounder below) 1) What does the "thought switch" enhance? promote? reply- 2) What does the "thought switch" make obsolete? leave behind ? reply- 3) What does the "thought switch" retrieve? bring back? (Something that was lost/abandoned in some old previously obsolesced artifact) reply- 4) Taken to the extreme, what does the "thought switch" flip into? or reverse into? What if everyone is using it? reply- Your name- Your email- Replying from List- -cut- Please reply using the above headings only. Do not change the Subject line when repying. Please reply to the list and share your ideas about impacts, but copy me at: wderzko@pathcom.com if you want your ideas to be credited with anticipating the impact(s) and to be archived in my new web page (under construction) Walter Derzko Director Idea Lab wderzko@pathcom.com ========================================================================= (next week- Opportuni-Tease #2-Geneotyped Food - The Death of Recommended Daily Food Guides?) ========================================================================= Backgrounder on Thought Switch Following up on basic research work done in British Columbia at Simon Fraser Univ in the 1980' and early 90's we now get the first commercial versions of a Thought Switch "Scientist Uses His Brain to Turn On TV" Los Angeles Times (12/28/97) P. A13; Harlow, Jarrod Hidenori Onishi, a research scientist at Technos Japan, jointly developed a device with the help of the Himeji Institute of Technology that senses beta-wave brain patterns and converts them into signals used to operate electrical appliances such as televisions, lights, and doorbells. Inventors of the "remote-control" device, called the Mind Control Tool Operating System (MCTOS), say the technology could dramatically change how bedridden, handicapped, or paralyzed people live. Onishi said MCTOS will target consumer markets, and cost about $4,800. He believes his brain wave device will be successful in broader markets because it requires no training. Onishi's lab version of MCTOS looks like a pair of goggles connected to a laptop computer. An Associated Press reporter tested MCTOS and mastered the system quite easily. "The system requires no training by the user, because the brain waves the machine responds to are emitted simply by exercising the will," Onishi explained. Don Bell from Cybermind digest (Jan 1st) writes: The NTT InterCommunications Center (ICC) at the Tokyo Opera City Center in Shinjuku, Tokyo, (http://www.ntticc.or.jp I think) has an exhibit where museum guests can influence the movements of robotic insects via brain waves... A visitor puts on headgear which detects beta waves and uses the signal to control overhead spot lighting intensity. The lights are directed at solar panels on the backs of the insect-like robots... (I realized that this would be a far more practical and efficient way to direct the activities of my personal robot insect assistants back home in the USA, rather than the cumbersome dataglove and voice commands I have to use today... They only seem to pay attention when I yell at them ;-) ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 01:07:13 +0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Mohinish Shukla Subject: Re: Opportuni-Tease #1 - Thought Switches X-cc: "Walter Derzko, Director Idea Lab" In-Reply-To: <199801011852.AAA12276@iisc.ernet.in> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > 1) What does the "thought switch" enhance? promote? > reply- ease of communicationg with mechanical stuff/ machines; promotes, prob'ly, faster response times > > 2) What does the "thought switch" make obsolete? leave behind ? > reply- hand-operated switches, lots of 'em, no more messy panels and panels of buttons on the VCR/Computer, just thought-control 'trodes > > 3) What does the "thought switch" retrieve? bring back? > (Something that was lost/abandoned in some old previously obsolesced > artifact) > reply- memories of telekinesis!! > > 4) Taken to the extreme, what does the "thought switch" flip into? or > reverse into? > What if everyone is using it? > reply- I for one would love to give up all touch operated stuff ... > > Your name- Mohinish Shukla > Your email-moss@biochem.iisc.ernet.in > Replying from List- > > -cut- ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 19:31:19 -0800 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Comments: RFC822 error: Incorrect or incomplete address field found and ignored. From: Walter Derzko Subject: Reminder- One Day Knowledge Management Workshop-Jan 20th-Toronto MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit TITLE : HOW TO IMPLEMENT A KNOWLEDGE INNOVATION STRATEGY CO-SPONSORED BY :- THE KAIETEUR INSTITUTE FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT THE CREATIVITY CONSORTIUM EXCALIBUR TECHNOLOGIES - http://www.excalib.com ENTOVATION INTERNATIONAL - http://www.entovation.com THE CENTRE FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE - http://www.smartskills.com DIGITAL/ALTAVISTA - http://www.digital.altavista.com ENDORSED BY :- BOOKS FOR BUSINESS DATE : Tuesday,January 20, 1998 Marriott Eaton Centre 525 Bay Street, Toronto. SEMINAR SCHEDULE Breakfast & Registration 8:00 a.m.-8:30 p.m Practicum 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Knowledge Enabling Software & Innovation Audits 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. Cocktails & Networking Reception 5:00 - 7:00 p.m For Further Information, please Fax (416)651-2108 or send an E-Mail to kikm@sprynet.com Or Tel : (416) 651-1837. To the Attention Of Bryan Elliot Davis. AUDIENCE : Senior Executives who are engaged in, or are seriously interested in improving the management of knowledge,intellectual capital, and intangible assets, within their organizations. KEYNOTE FACULTY : DEBRA AMIDON, OTHER SPEAKERS: WALTER DERZKO and BRIAN DAVIS DEBRA AMIDON, is the Founder and Chief Strategist for ENTOVATION INTERNATIONAL,( Wilmington, Massachusetts). http://www.entovation.com A global innovation research and consulting network, linking 45 countries throughout the world. Her own specialties include : knowledge management, learning networks,customer innovations, and enterprise transformation. During the past year alone her presentations have been heard in the United States, Canada, France, England, The Netherlands, Sweden, Mexico,and Chile. She has been an advisor to such organizations as The National Research Council, The Agility Forum, The European Knowledge Union, The BBC, Steelcase, and most recently – The World Bank. Prior to forming her own company, she held various management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation , was Assistant Secretary For Education For The Commonwealth Of Massachusetts,Founding Executive Director of The Northeast Consortium Of Colleges & Universities in Massachusetts, and the first female Dean Of Babson College. She holds degrees from Boston University, Columbia University, and The Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, where she was an Alfred Sloan Fellow. She is author of numerous articles and publications in the Knowledge Management field, including : Innovation Strategy For The Knowledge Economy : The Ken Awakening. 1997. Butterworth Heinemann. Creating The Knowledge-Based Business, An In-Depth Research Report authored with David Skyrme for Business Intelligence (UK). Collaborative Innovation & The Knowledge Economy, an Issues Paper for The Society Of Management Accountants Of Canada, due for release in January 1998. (Note: the CMA is considering our request for the possible availability of this Paper for non-CMA members). CURRICULUM : This course is based on an in depth Report authored by Debra Amidon & David Skyrme, and published by Business Intelligence Co,UK. The Report is usually available for a cost of $ 1,000 US. (Registrants in the seminar will be eligible to purchase the Report for a 25% discount. Contact us if you wish to order.) The PRACTICUM Will cover :- 1. The Momentum Of Knowledge Management Drivers behind the knowledge management movement 2. The Business Intelligence Survey 3. Knowledge Leadership Case Studies: Dow Chemical & Glaxo Welcome 4. The Measurement Gap - Case Study : Skandia 5. Value Adding Processes Leveraging your knowledge potential Case Studies: DTI & Price Waterhouse 6. Creating A Collaborative Culture Case Studies: Monsanto & Steelcase 7. Roles & Skills For The Knowledge Age - Case Study : Anglian Water 8. The Technology Infrastructure Case Studies: Thomas Miller & Buckman Labs 9. An Agenda For Action Opportunities & Challenges; State Of Theory Vs State Of Practice; Lessons From The Leaders; KM Assessment; Levers Of Value & Change; Critical Success Factors; Forecasting The Future. There will also be leading edge research shared, on doing Innovation Audits by Walter Derzko and also on the new Knowledge Enabling Software Tools that are fast becoming available ( by Brian Davis). REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND : 1. Growing Importance Of The Subject The knowledge-based economy is developing quickly. The nature of organizations, the nature of work, is becoming ever more knowledge intensive and brain based. The OECD says the knowledge based sector of the developed economies is the fastest growing sector. Knowledge Management is emerging as a new discipline targeted to bring explicit strategies, tools and techniques to managing intellectual capital and intangible assets. 2. If Knowledge is Power, then knowledge about managing knowledge is extremely powerful.Gaining additional knowledge about the trends, the strategies, the tools, the techniques, will provide you with a competitive edge. 3. Learn From & Leverage The Success Of Others By reviewing real world cases of companies who have achieved successful results implementing knowledge management, you will be inspired and encouraged in your initiatives. You will better understand what practical steps to take. 4. Improve Innovation Cycle Time and Quality Understanding the knowledge innovation concept, will enable you to focus your company's knowledge resources. More effective collaborative improvisation and creativity, lower cost, harnessing customer knowledge, and faster time to market are vital competencies for every business today. 5. Knowledge is an antidote to failure In 1997, there were some spectacular business failures. A common theme was - who knew what was going on ? ( Barings, Asia, Ontario Hydro, Sumitomo, Bre-X) Managing knowledge more effectively is increasingly, an important business imperative. Tom Peters says, it's close to Job # 1 for Corporations today. 6. Ideas are the new currency What's a good new idea worth ? A mentored discussion away from the office about new approaches to sharing, exchanging, and harnessing good ideas is bound to be of immense value. 7. The Value proposition Debra Amidon's knowledge about this subject is currently detailed in a Report prepared for Business Intelligence, UK. Inc. It has a current retail value of $ 1,000 US. In this seminar you are receiving a Personal Report with not the explicit knowledge bound in hard copy, but the complete picture of the state of the art in knowledge management today, including tacit insights. Plus you will receive a free copy of her new Book - Innovation Strategy For the Knowledge Economy - The Ken Awakening, and you will learn amazing new facts about knowledge enabling software that's becoming available. We are organizing to have for you copies of Knowledge Inc, Fast Company, and KM World , publications you may be unaware of. 8. Effective Knowledge Transfer This seminar is an excellent way to have rapidly transferred to you, the insights and deep understanding of the knowledge management field achieved by our lead presenter. 9. Network Access The companies sponsoring this event, including Entovation International intersect valuable communities of interest and practice that can become accessible to your organization. Knowing about the nodes in this wide area network can be of tremendous value. REGISTRATION FEE $ 350. Per Person, plus 7 % GST. = $ 374.50 Your Fee includes full seminar tuition, materials, an autobiographed copy of Debra Amidon's Debra Amidon's Book The Ken Awakening, Continental Breakfast, Lunch, and Networking Reception. You also receive a free copy of Fast Company, Knowledge Inc., KM World. Any company registering more than three people will be entitled to a fourth registration free of charge. Please make Cheques Payable to The Kaieteur Institute For Knowledge Management. Contact us to obtain a Registration Form. You may also pay by credit card or we can invoice you. For Further Information, please Fax (416)651-2108 or send an E-Mail to kikm@sprynet.com Or Tel : (416) 651-1837. To the Attention Of Bryan Elliot Davis. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 09:02:18 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: "Rooney,John Peter" JOHN PETER ROONEY ASQ CERTIFIED RELIABILITY ENGINEER #2425 E-Mail: jprooney@foxboro.com >---------- >From: Sergio Santos[SMTP:sergios@NEOSIS.PT] >Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 1997 9:12AM >To: SCIENCE-AS-CULTURE@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU > >------ =_NextPart_000_01BD152C.F6FF1B20 >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > >Unsubscribe >------ =_NextPart_000_01BD152C.F6FF1B20 >Content-Type: application/ms-tnef >Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 > >eJ8+Ih4OAQaQCAAEAAAAAAABAAEAAQeQBgAIAAAA5AQAAAAAAADoAAEIgAcAGAAAAElQTS5NaWNy >b3NvZnQgTWFpbC5Ob3RlADEIAQ2ABAACAAAAAgACAAEEkAYAbAEAAAEAAAAMAAAAAwAAMAIAAAAL >AA8OAAAAAAIB/w8BAAAAYwAAAAAAAACBKx+kvqMQGZ1uAN0BD1QCAAAAAFNjaS1DdWx0ICBTY2ll >bmNlLWFzLUN1bHR1cmUAU01UUABTQ0lFTkNFLUFTLUNVTFRVUkVATUFFTFNUUk9NLlNUSk9ITlMu >RURVAAAeAAIwAQAAAAUAAABTTVRQAAAAAB4AAzABAAAAKQAAAFNDSUVOQ0UtQVMtQ1VMVFVSRUBN >QUVMU1RST00uU1RKT0hOUy5FRFUAAAAAAwAVDAEAAAADAP4PBgAAAB4AATABAAAAHwAAACdTY2kt >Q3VsdCAgU2NpZW5jZS1hcy1DdWx0dXJlJwAAAgELMAEAAAAuAAAAU01UUDpTQ0lFTkNFLUFTLUNV >TFRVUkVATUFFTFNUUk9NLlNUSk9ITlMuRURVAAAAAwAAOQAAAAALAEA6AQAAAAIB9g8BAAAABAAA >AAAAAAI8RgEEgAEAAQAAAAAAAAEFgAMADgAAAM0HDAAeAA4ADAAdAAIANwEBIIADAA4AAADNBwwA >HgAOAAwACQACACMBAQmAAQAhAAAAMkJDRjUwMjQxRjgxRDExMUE1ODIwMDAwQjQzQUE2MDIA4gYB >A5AGAJQBAAAUAAAACwAjAAAAAAADACYAAAAAAAsAKQAAAAAAAwAuAAAAAAADADYAAAAAAEAAOQAA >yVj2LBW9AR4AcAABAAAAAQAAAAAAAAACAXEAAQAAABYAAAABvRUs9lgkUM8sgR8R0aWCAAC0OqYC >AAAeAB4MAQAAAAUAAABTTVRQAAAAAB4AHwwBAAAAEgAAAHNlcmdpb3NAbmVvc2lzLnB0AAAAAwAG >EAoT6EMDAAcQCwAAAB4ACBABAAAADAAAAFVOU1VCU0NSSUJFAAIBCRABAAAAfwAAAHsAAADzAAAA >TFpGdROpt3P/AAoBDwIVAqQD5AXrAoMAUBMDVAIAY2gKwHNldO4yBgAGwwKDMgPGBxMCg/ozEw19 >CoAIzwnZAoAKgdMNsQtgbmcB0DcN8AsKkxQiAdAgVQCAdWIE8lxiZQtGEvIMAXADYHQvBZAFQAqF >FSEAHCAAAwAQEAAAAAADABEQAAAAAEAABzDgZWXqLBW9AUAACDDgZWXqLBW9AR4APQABAAAAAQAA >AAAAAAADAA00/TcAAB9L > >------ =_NextPart_000_01BD152C.F6FF1B20-- > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 20:20:28 -0800 Reply-To: Joachim.Schummer@geist-soz.uni-karlsruhe.de Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Joachim Schummer Organization: Institute of Philosophy, University of Karlsruhe Subject: JOURNALS CONTENT SERVICE "Science Studies" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I like to announce a new electronic service, which is, as far as I know, a desideratum for many of us with badly equipped libraries. I have prepared a JOURNALS CONTENT SERVICE "Science Studies" of some 70 journals on Science Studies in a broader sense (philosophy, history and sociology of science, technology and medicine). Table of content data are automatically provided by a database of our University Library and are updated every week. Access is free for everybody via http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~philosophie/hyle.html Suggestions to include further journals of the area are greatly appreciated and will be considered, if data are available either in our database or on the WWW. Please forward this announcement to everybody who might find this service useful. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Joachim Schummer Institute of Philosophy, University of Karlsruhe D-76128 Karlsruhe, GERMANY Joachim.Schummer@geist-soz.uni-karlsruhe.de HYLE An International Journal for the Philosophy of Chemistry http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~philosophie/hyle.html ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 10:59:02 +0000 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Robert Maxwell Young Subject: essays on Marxism and science and other writings Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I have placed at my web site three articles which may be of interst to members of this forum: 'Marxism and the History of Science' http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/N-Q/psysc/staff/rmyoung/papers/pap104.html 'Science, Alienation and Oppression" http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/N-Q/psysc/staff/rmyoung/papers/pap103.html 'The Mind-Body Problem' http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/N-Q/psysc/staff/rmyoung/papers/pap102.html The web site of my writings now contains six books and over a hundred other writings of various kinds in history, philosophy and social studies of science, psychoanalysis and various aspects of the study of nature, human nature and society, with particular emphasis on values and ideology. http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/N-Q/psysc/staff/rmyoung/papers/index.html Comments very welcome Best, Bob Young __________________________________________ In making a personal reply, please put in Subject line: Message for Bob Young Robert Maxwell Young: robert@rmy1.demon.co.uk or r.m.young@sheffield.ac.uk, 26 Freegrove Rd., London N7 9RQ, Eng. tel.+44 171 607 8306 fax.+44 171 609 4837 Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies, Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, University of Sheffield. Home page and writings: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/ Process Press publications: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/process_press/index.html 'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' - Camus ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 10:15:19 +0000 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Robert Maxwell Young Subject: _Science as Culture_ no. 29 has appeared; Barbara Heyl classic article at web site Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii" _Science as Culture_ No. 29 (Vol. 6 Part 4) has now appeared in the US and will soon do so elsewhere. The editors hope that members of this forum will subscribe to the journal, which has a unique point of view in a world where most commentators on science, technology, medicine and other forms of expertise suffer from a remarkable timidity. They also invite submissions on any aspect of the culturalo dimensions of science and history and philosophy of science and other forms of expertise. CONTENTS Guest Editorial: 'Between Life And Death' Ann Rudinow Saetnan 'Calvinism And Chromosomes: Religion, The Geographical Imaginary and Medical Genetics in The Netherlands' Karen-Sue Taussig 'Pioneering Procreation: Israel's First Test-Tube Baby' Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli 'Healthy Families, Healthy Citizens: The Politics of Speech and Knowledge in the California Anti-Secondhand Smoke Media Campaign' Roddey Reid 'Disciplined by The Future: The Promising Bodies of Cryonics Richard Doyle _Science as Culture_ is published quarterly for Process Press Ltd. by Carfax Publications Ltd. For information about subscriptions and a list of back issues, go to: http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/gpp/process.html#science A web site associated with the journal and forum holds articles from back issues of the journal, as well as other materials which forum members may wish to discuss: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/rmy/sac.html The web site now includes Barbara Heyl's classic article, 'The Harvard "Pareto Circle"', which discusses the ideological origins of the concepts of social system and social equilibrium, involving the influence of L. J. Henderson on the social science writings of Talcott Parsons, Charles Homans and Crane Brinton, in which Henderson drew on the ultra-conservative theories of Vilfedo Pareto to combat radical and Marxist ideas in American social science. This essay is of considerable interest for the understandng of systems thinking in the human sciences and in the functionalist tradition. __________________________________________ In making a personal reply, please put in Subject line: Message for Bob Young Robert Maxwell Young: robert@rmy1.demon.co.uk or r.m.young@sheffield.ac.uk, 26 Freegrove Rd., London N7 9RQ, Eng. tel.+44 171 607 8306 fax.+44 171 609 4837 Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies, Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, University of Sheffield. Home page and writings: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/ Process Press publications: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/process_press/index.html 'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' - Camus ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 17:38:22 +0000 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Carol Shergold Subject: Re: On-line Classics in the History of Psychology In-Reply-To: from "Robert Maxwell Young" at Dec 28, 97 10:32:18 am MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > It is my pleasure to announce the opening of a new web site that I think > may be of interest to you: Classics in the History of Psychology. This > site currently contains the complete texts of 19 works of major historical > importance, as well as seven introductions to, and commentaries on, those > documents. > I would very much like to recieve your comments on, and suggestions about, > the site. Please forward them directly to me. My comment is that your site is excellent, and provides exactly the sort of information I always assumed the web would be full of, in those naive days before I actually started trying to use it! Thanks! Carol Shergold Doctoral student School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences University of Sussex UK ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 19:40:29 +0000 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Robert Maxwell Young Subject: JOURNALS CONTENT SERVICE "Science Studies": list of journals included Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable What an excellent site and service. Congratulations. Bob Young Here is a list of the current contents: HYLE - Journals Content Service Science Studies 1994-97 Selected Journals from the Philosophy, History, and Sociology of Science, Technology, and Medicine Data are automatically provided with support of the Universit=E4tsbibliothek Karlsruhe and weekly updated 1.Acta Biotheoretica: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 2.Ambix: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 3.Analysis: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 4.Annals of Science: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 5.Antilia - Spanish Journal of the History of Natural Sciences and Technology (E-Journal) 6.Arabic Sciences and Philosophy: 1997 | 96 7.Archive for History of Exact Sciences: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 8.Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 9= 4 9.Biology and Philosophy: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 10.British Journal for the History of Science: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 11.British Journal for the Philosophy of Science: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 12.Bulletin for the History of Chemistry: 13.Bulletin of the History of Medicine: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 14.Centaurus: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 15.Clio Medica: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 16.Configurations: 17.Dialectica: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 18.EASST Review (The European Association for the Study of Science and Technology) (E-Journal) 19.Epistemologia: 1997 | 96 20.Explorations in Knowledge: 21.Foundations of Physics: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 22.Foundations of Science: 23.Gesnerus: 1997 | 96 | 95 24.Historia Mathematica: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 25.Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 26.History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences: 1997 | 96 27.History and Philosophy of Logic: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 28.History and Technology: 1997 | 96 | 95 29.History of Science: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 30.History of Technology: 1997 | 96 | 95 31.HYLE (E-Journal) 32.International Studies in the Philosophy of Science: 1997 | 96 | 95 | = 94 33.ISIS: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 34.Journal for General Philosophy of Science: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 35.Journal of the History of Biology: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 36.Journal of the History of Ideas: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 37.Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 38.Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 39.Journal of Technology Studies (E-Journal) 40.Kennis en Methode: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 41.Mathesis universalis (E-Journal) 42.Medical History: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 43.Metaphysical Review: Essays on the Foundation of Physics (E-Journal) 44.Metascience: 45.Minerva: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 46.Osiris: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 47.Perspectives on Science: 1997 48.Philosophia Naturalis: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 49.Philosophy of Science: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 50.Physis: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 51.Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 52.Research Policy: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 53.Revue d'Histoire des Sciences: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 54.Science and Public Policy: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 55.Science as Culture: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 56.Science in Context: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 57.Science, Technology, and Human Values: 58.Scientometrics: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 59.Social Epistemology: 60.Social History of Medicine: 1997 | 96 | 95 61.Social Studies of Science: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 62.Society for Philosophy & Technology (E-Journal) 63.Studies in History and Philosophy of Science - Part A: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 64.Studies in History and Philosophy of Science - Part B: 1997 | 96 | 95 65.Sudhoffs Archiv - Zeitschrift f=FCr Wissenschaftsgeschichte: 1997 | 9= 6 | 95 | 94 66.Synthese: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 67.Technikgeschichte: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 68.Technology and Culture: 69.Technoscience - Newsletter of the Society for Social Studies of Science (E-Journal) 70.Tekhnema - Journal of Philosophy and Technology (E-Journal) 71.Teorie Vedy: 72.Theoria: 73.Zygon - Journal of Religion and Science: 1997 | 96 | 95 | 94 I like to announce a new electronic service, which is, as far as I know, a desideratum for many of us with badly equipped libraries. I have prepared a JOURNALS CONTENT SERVICE "Science Studies" of some 70 journals on Science Studies in a broader sense (philosophy, history and sociology of science, technology and medicine). Table of content data are automatically provided by a database of our University Library and are updated every week. Access is free for everybody via http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~philosophie/hyle.html Suggestions to include further journals of the area are greatly appreciated and will be considered, if data are available either in our database or on the WWW. Please forward this announcement to everybody who might find this service useful. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Joachim Schummer Institute of Philosophy, University of Karlsruhe D-76128 Karlsruhe, GERMANY Joachim.Schummer@geist-soz.uni-karlsruhe.de HYLE An International Journal for the Philosophy of Chemistry http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~philosophie/hyle.html __________________________________________ In making a personal reply, please put in Subject line: Message for Bob Youn= g Robert Maxwell Young: robert@rmy1.demon.co.uk or r.m.young@sheffield.ac.uk, 26 Freegrove Rd., London N7 9RQ, Eng. tel.+44 171 607 8306 fax.+44 171 609 4837 Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies, Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, University of Sheffield. Home page and writings: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/ Process Press publications: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/process_press/index.html 'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' - Camus ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 03:55:20 EST Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: ARCHIVE1 Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com) Subject: factor 2000 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Helo,Doing 2.part of"vicabulary of graffiti-research"and trying to understand what initiated(also)cave-art I found following matters and it all started with the ICE-AGE REVOLUTION: 1.climatic changes(oscillation,interglacials)especially latest 100 000 years 2.inviting adaption of man 3.cooking(fire)now being used/invented/found 4.better nutrinional use of available food)first surplus) 5.softer food(for the toothless age)first"cultural act"=care for them 6.their survival making more handing down of informations possible(2.surplus) 7.this inviting beginnings of"culture" 8.surpluss accumulating 9.life in caves(fire,security,warmth)making matters somewhat relaxed 10.security aspect(planning)inviting imagination,new experiences 11.fire also helping preserve food(smoking,drying etc.) 12.next surplus(food storage)=more securities 13.mothers also having more babies(survival)see nos.1-12 14.better tools etc.(more"culture) 15.better(secured,relaxed)child-mother interaction(love,language etc.) 16.DIRECT handing down of informations(life-experience)from gandparents to children(this being the root of"trinity"grand,-parents,children.....)=more surplus=culture 17.second cultural level reached(summation)overall security 18.effects bringing more optimatisations(speeding up) 19.social security now inviting more expertiments(cook was first"scientist"and"kitchen"=laboratory where sbstances became changed....) 20.differentiations of handcrafts 21.during that time-span doubling of brain size(also due to nos.1-20....) 22.cave-art,decoration(surplus effects)beginning(charcoal)ca. 80 000 years back 23."freedom"(leisure)inviting maes,plays etc. 24.more security(=culture) 25.acceleration due to better nutrition(=meat=protein) 26.trading and travelling starting(=more informations) 27.cultural intensified processes(better tools etc. and so on and on--- If we copare the time span then adn there with(in between INDUSTRIOAL REVOLUTIO,19.centuiry)with 50 years following 1945 ATOMIC-ELECTRONIC REVOLUTION and make some equation: 100 000:50(years)= 2000 we have the"factor 2000"telling us some about accelerative impact of the changes we have to cope with now. Now we,egain,ere being faced by environmental problems(economy=ecology)and it remains to be see how me will make it..... Axel Thiel int.work-group on graffiti-research http://users.aol.com/archive1 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 09:18:29 +0000 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Robert Maxwell Young Subject: FYI: HSTM-Hotline - WWW site notification service Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Tim Sherratt writes: Dear All, Thanks for your comments on the renovated WWW Virtual Library for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. I have created an additional service for those of you who like to keep track of the new sites added to the database. It's called HSTM-Hotline and is an automated email distribution list. Every Sunday, HSTM-Hotline will send subscribers a list of sites added to the WWWVL-HSTM in the past week. It's NOT a discussion list, so any replies or postings will bounce. Here's an example of the format: ----------------------------------------- Added on 3 January 1998: ARCHIVES FOR FAMILY PRACTICE (399) American Academy of Family Physicians Direct URL: http://www.aafp.org/family/aafpf/archives.html BAKKEN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM (400) Direct URL: http://www.bakkenmuseum.org/ ETH LIBRARY: HISTORY OF SCIENCE COLLECTIONS (403) Archives of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Direct URL: http://www.ethbib.ethz.ch/whs/wisshis.html ----------------------------------------- >From time to time I may also post other information concerning changes to the WWWVL-HSTM. News of major updates, changes, or new facilities will be posted to existing discussion lists as at present. As well as keeping you up to date, HSTM-Hotline will provide me with an additional motivational tool. Just imagine the embarrassment if I fail to reach my self-imposed target of 20 sites per week!! ;-) TO SUBSCRIBE to HSTM-Hotline, just send the message "subscribe HSTM-Hotline" to majordomo@asap.unimelb.edu.au Of course, there is also a list of all sites added recently to the WWWVL-HSTM at: http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/hstm/hstm_added.htm As with most things relating to the WWWVL-HSTM, this part of an ongoing experiment to see what works and is useful for the HSTM community. If nobody subscribes then I will have strong evidence that it was a dumb idea to begin with... Cheers, Tim Tim Sherratt (Tim.Sherratt@asap.unimelb.edu.au) disCONTENTS - Purveyors of fine ideas PO Box 140, Queanbeyan NSW 2620 Ph: +61 (0)6 2991043 __________________________________________ In making a personal reply, please put in Subject line: Message for Bob Young Robert Maxwell Young: robert@rmy1.demon.co.uk or r.m.young@sheffield.ac.uk, 26 Freegrove Rd., London N7 9RQ, Eng. tel.+44 171 607 8306 fax.+44 171 609 4837 Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies, Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, University of Sheffield. Home page and writings: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/ Process Press publications: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/process_press/index.html 'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' - Camus ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 11:00:16 +0000 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Antonio Rossin Subject: Only a few questions (from a new subs) X-To: SCIENCE-AS-CULTURE Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear SCIENCE-AS-CULTURE List Owner and Inhabitants, The reason for myself having subscribed here are the questions below. Possibly, please, answer me, thanks. 1 -- What do you think it is better: a) either saying "falseness" aimed at increasing independent and critical thinking in the target, or b) saying the truth thus likely leading the target to increase more and more its confidence and gregarious thinking to the speaker authority as in itself? 2 -- What is your usual speaking style, re to the above choice? 3 -- Did you already acknowledge this problem, before? Affirmatively, let me know the how and where. 4 -- Do you think this problem to be relevant for Education, especially in first family dialogues aiming at increasing Critical Thinking, autonomousness and self-consciousness in children? 5 -- How do you would suggest educators especially parents to solve this problem if relevant, consistently? 6 -- Finally, if any statement (like the above ;)) can be misunderstood (mis-taken), which is the best way to anticipate the need for clarification or resolution? Really, in my small way, I already searched for some answers to the above questions, which I think to be basically relevant for whatever issue of communication, i.e., Culture. My results are at: I would be pleased to compare my answers with yours, if any. If none, I would like to discuss mine with you. With my best regards, antonio ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 12:43:03 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Appropriate math problems? In-Reply-To: <199709151827.OAA25607@u3.farm.idt.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I found the following problem in an American elementary algebra book. It seems to me an egregious example of the misuse of a mathematics classroom to preach political lessons. Not only is the subject matter too highly-charged emotionally, but it slanders one particular ethnic group (New Englanders, in this case) as being particularly bloodthirsty and nasty. I suppose that this list reaches people who will want to defend the pedagogical practices that this problem and this book exemplifies, and I invite their comments: Norman Levitt Dept. of Math, Rutgers U. Problem: In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut or sold into slavery. The square of twice the number of survivors is equal to 1/10-th that number. What was that number? ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 14:03:33 -0500 Reply-To: bradmcc@cloud9.net Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." Organization: AbiCo. Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Norman Levitt wrote: > > I found the following problem in an American elementary algebra book. It > seems to me an egregious example of the misuse of a mathematics classroom > to preach political lessons. Not only is the subject matter too > highly-charged emotionally, but it slanders one particular ethnic group > (New Englanders, in this case) as being particularly bloodthirsty and > nasty. > > I suppose that this list reaches people who will want to defend the > pedagogical practices that this problem and this book exemplifies, and I > invite their comments: > > Problem: > In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on > the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut or sold into > slavery. The square of twice the number of survivors is equal to 1/10-th > that number. What was that number? My first respponse to this is that it involves a meaningless abstraction, and thus contributes to the students seeing the world in an "autistic" ("meaning blind", to borrow a phrase from Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations). More meaningful questions, depending on the desired level of mathematical sophistication, might range from: "In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut or sold into slavery. If half of all persons suffering banishment or enslavement die within a year of suffering that misfortune, and 500 Pequots were alive a year after the slaughter, how many Pequots were there before the slaughter? to: "In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut or sold into slavery. If there were 5000 Pequots before the slaughter, and 20% of the survivors were banished and the rest enslaved, and if the mortality rate for slaves is 2% per day and the mortality rate for banished persons is 1.5% per day, how many Pequots remained alive after one week? one month? one year? Of course, a more politically relevant (albeit incorrect) question might be something like: If there are 1000 persons alive today who have legally been adjudicated to be at least 1/16 Pequot blood, and each such person is entitled to an equal proportion of the profits of the Pequot Casino, how much unearned income does each Pequot receive each year if the casino makes $10,000,000 annual profit? \brad mccormick -- Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world. Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / bradmcc@cloud9.net (914)238-0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA ------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/ ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 14:46:35 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: "Thomas G. Karnofsky" Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Could you provide a reference for this problem? What book? There are also a few problems with the formulation of your question. What do you mean by the ethnic group label New Englander? How does the question slander them when it doesn't even mention them? It may be innappropriate, but why do you pick out this example? Why do you consider this political, as opposed to examples that perpetrate a benign view of the invasion of the Americas, which you would presumably consider objective and apolitical? At 12:43 PM 1/10/98 -0500, you wrote: >I found the following problem in an American elementary algebra book. It >seems to me an egregious example of the misuse of a mathematics classroom >to preach political lessons. Not only is the subject matter too >highly-charged emotionally, but it slanders one particular ethnic group >(New Englanders, in this case) as being particularly bloodthirsty and >nasty. > >I suppose that this list reaches people who will want to defend the >pedagogical practices that this problem and this book exemplifies, and I >invite their comments: > >Norman Levitt >Dept. of Math, Rutgers U. > >Problem: >In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on >the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut or sold into >slavery. The square of twice the number of survivors is equal to 1/10-th >that number. What was that number? > > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 06:31:40 +0000 Reply-To: Gregory Murrie Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Gregory Murrie Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? In-Reply-To: <9801101748.AA02276@a1.sas.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Sat, 10 Jan 1998, Norman Levitt wrote: > I found the following problem in an American elementary algebra book. It > seems to me an egregious example of the misuse of a mathematics classroom > to preach political lessons. Not only is the subject matter too > highly-charged emotionally, but it slanders one particular ethnic group > (New Englanders, in this case) as being particularly bloodthirsty and > nasty. To me, rather than "slandering" New Englanders, it seems to do perhaps the diametrically opposite, trivialising the issue of the slaughter of Indians by reducing it to a mathematical problem. I think that taking the issue out of an arena where the political implications of the history can be discussed, no matter what they prove to be, is the problem here, Greg Murrie s_murrie@eduserv.its.unimelb.edu.au ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 12:24:16 +0200 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Asia Lerner Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Please supply bibliographical references that will allow me (and others on this list) to verify the existance of such a book. Are you quite sure this is not a Sokal-style made up example? In addition, since the number of the slaughtered people seems to be a modest 1/40, this should be considered, if anything, quite flattering to New Englanders, except that I am not quite sure how you slaughter 1/40 of a human being. Best regards, Asia Lerner At 12:43 PM 1/10/98 -0500, you wrote: >I found the following problem in an American elementary algebra book. It >seems to me an egregious example of the misuse of a mathematics classroom >to preach political lessons. Not only is the subject matter too >highly-charged emotionally, but it slanders one particular ethnic group >(New Englanders, in this case) as being particularly bloodthirsty and >nasty. > >I suppose that this list reaches people who will want to defend the >pedagogical practices that this problem and this book exemplifies, and I >invite their comments: > >Norman Levitt >Dept. of Math, Rutgers U. > >Problem: >In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on >the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut or sold into >slavery. The square of twice the number of survivors is equal to 1/10-th >that number. What was that number? > > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 13:13:43 -0500 Reply-To: Norman Levitt Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? In-Reply-To: <199801111035.FAA07627@u2.farm.idt.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The messages from Asia Lerner and Thomas G. Karnovsky request a specific reference for the math problem referring to the Pequod genocide. The book is: "The Elements of Algebra" by D. Harvey Hill (J.B. Lippincott, pub.) I find that Hill is also listed as author of: "A Consideration of the Sermon on the Mount" and "The Crucifixion of Christ" which suggests a religious, as well as political motivation. N. Levitt ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 17:46:41 -0500 Reply-To: Norman Levitt Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems (correctrion) In-Reply-To: <199801111035.FAA07627@u2.farm.idt.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII My apologies, again, to Mr. Lerner; I dropped a crucial word from the statgement of the problem: It should read "The square ROOT of twice the number of survivors is equal to 1/10-th that number." On Sun, 11 Jan 1998, Asia Lerner wrote: > Please supply bibliographical references that will allow me (and others on > this list) to verify the existance of such a book. Are you quite sure this > is not a Sokal-style made up example? > > In addition, since the number of the slaughtered people seems to be a > modest 1/40, this should be considered, if anything, quite flattering to > New Englanders, except that I am not quite sure how you slaughter 1/40 of a > human being. > > Best regards, Asia Lerner > > > At 12:43 PM 1/10/98 -0500, you wrote: > >I found the following problem in an American elementary algebra book. It > >seems to me an egregious example of the misuse of a mathematics classroom > >to preach political lessons. Not only is the subject matter too > >highly-charged emotionally, but it slanders one particular ethnic group > >(New Englanders, in this case) as being particularly bloodthirsty and > >nasty. > > > >I suppose that this list reaches people who will want to defend the > >pedagogical practices that this problem and this book exemplifies, and I > >invite their comments: > > > >Norman Levitt > >Dept. of Math, Rutgers U. > > > >Problem: > >In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on > >the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut or sold into > >slavery. The square of twice the number of survivors is equal to 1/10-th > >that number. What was that number? > > > > > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 16:14:07 -0700 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Patrick OBrien Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? In-Reply-To: <199801101743.RAA00709@mesa5.mesa.colorado.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sat, 10 Jan 1998, Norman Levitt wrote: > I found the following problem in an American elementary algebra book. It > seems to me an egregious example of the misuse of a mathematics classroom > to preach political lessons. Not only is the subject matter too > highly-charged emotionally, but it slanders one particular ethnic group > (New Englanders, in this case) as being particularly bloodthirsty and > nasty. > > I suppose that this list reaches people who will want to defend the > pedagogical practices that this problem and this book exemplifies, and I > invite their comments: > > Norman Levitt > Dept. of Math, Rutgers U. > > Problem: > In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on > the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut or sold into > slavery. The square of twice the number of survivors is equal to 1/10-th > that number. What was that number? > =========================================================== Yes, I grew up in the Plymouth, Mass. area, and I must agree with you. I firmly believe that facts should be eliiminated, or at least avoided. I'm well aware that the Yankee is stigma has been grossly exagerated. Thank you, Pat O'Brien ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 19:35:09 -0800 Reply-To: wderzko@pathcom.com Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Walter Derzko Subject: Opportuni-Tease #2 - Genotyped Food (3) X-To: List Brkthr-L X-cc: List Innovation Mgmt Network , List bpr-l , List BUZAN , List Cybermind , List CPSI-L MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Opportuni-Tease #2 - Genotyped Food Opportuni-Tease is a new weekly posting to stimulate your opportunity thinking. I have a list of recent breakthrough technologies, science concepts and research that is still in the pilot or lab stages. They have been selected because they have the potential to "shock" your life, career, job or business. I think it would be useful to explore the potential social impact before these breakthroughs actually hit the market. It would provide the opportunity to mitigate/redesign any potential negative social impacts and enhance the positive ones Please help me in this exploration by addressing the four questions below: ( often asked by Marshal McLuhan-from McLuhan's Tetrad model): This week's Opportuni-Tease: Week #2-Genotyped Food (see backgrounder below) 1) What does "genotyped food" enhance? promote? reply- 2) What does "genotyped food" make obsolete? leave behind ? reply- 3) What does "genotyped food" retrieve? bring back? (Something that was lost/abandoned in some old previously obsolesced artifact) reply- 4) Taken to the extreme, what does genotyped food" flip into? or reverse into? What if everyone is using it? reply- Your name- Your email- Replying from List/Group- -cut------------------cut-------------------cut--------------------cut------ Please reply using the above headings only. Do not change the Subject line when repying. Please reply to the news group or list and share your ideas about impacts, but copy me at: wderzko@pathcom.com if you want to be credited with anticipating the impact(s) and to be archived in my new web page (under construction) Walter Derzko Director Idea Lab wderzko@pathcom.com ========================================================================= (next week- Opportuni-Tease #3-Cell Surface Engineering ========================================================================= Backgrounder on Genotyped Food A controversial medical theory claims that our bodies are genetically suited to certain foods and medications. Other food groups are rejected-the body considers them foreign.The theory is based on the existance of different surface cell proteins (lectins) in our blood serum, lungs and stomach which depends on our heritage and Blood groups, A,B, AB or O. If we knew what food to eat based on our blood group, what might some of the affects be? It's not " you are what you eat" any more but the reverse: You eat what you are. According to the theory, proposed by Peter D'Adamo, http://www.dadamo.com/ O Blood types have a greater tolerance to meat proteins , while "A" should avoid red meats and stick to vegetarian diets and some dairy. There certainly is a well-established association between particular blood types and an increased risk of certain diseases, such as ulcers. This theory, which is not yet accepted by mainstream medicine, is intriging and does make inherent sense. If further medical research does validate a direct link between blood groups, diet and disease, it would have a whole set of interesting consequences. We are not asking if you agree or disagree with the theory -only if this were true-what would the effects in society be? For see recent media reports: http://www.dadamo.com/recentgr.htm and Dr Peter D'Adamo's web page at: http://www.dadamo.com/ A medline search of papers on blood groups and diet and disease in medical journals can be reviewed at http://www.dadamo.com/medline.htm For a map on how blood groups spread throughout the world see http://www.dadamo.com/maps.htm Walter Derzko Director Idea Lab Toronto, Ontario Canada wderzko@pathcom.com (416) 588-1122 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 14:54:47 +0200 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Asia Lerner Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems (correctrion) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Thank you for the explanation. I see that I misunderstood your question as well, mistaking "number of survivors" for the number of the killed. In the restated scenario, the number of survivors is either 20 or 0. Whatever we choose, it's a problem to decide whether the other side was bloodthirsty or clement, since we do not know how many Indians were there initially. As for your general point, (whether this is appropriate), I personnaly agree that it's a trivialization of history. It's hard to believe that American Indians would actually want a tragical experience to be used in math primers. But on the other hand I do not think this case exemplifies either the methods of the goals of Sociology of Science writ large. Best Regards, Ms. Asia Lerner At 05:46 PM 1/11/98 -0500, you wrote: >My apologies, again, to Mr. Lerner; I dropped a crucial word from the >statgement of the problem: > >It should read > >"The square ROOT of twice the number of survivors is equal to >1/10-th that number." > > >On Sun, 11 Jan 1998, Asia Lerner wrote: > >> Please supply bibliographical references that will allow me (and others on >> this list) to verify the existance of such a book. Are you quite sure this >> is not a Sokal-style made up example? >> >> In addition, since the number of the slaughtered people seems to be a >> modest 1/40, this should be considered, if anything, quite flattering to >> New Englanders, except that I am not quite sure how you slaughter 1/40 of a >> human being. >> >> Best regards, Asia Lerner >> >> >> At 12:43 PM 1/10/98 -0500, you wrote: >> >I found the following problem in an American elementary algebra book. It >> >seems to me an egregious example of the misuse of a mathematics classroom >> >to preach political lessons. Not only is the subject matter too >> >highly-charged emotionally, but it slanders one particular ethnic group >> >(New Englanders, in this case) as being particularly bloodthirsty and >> >nasty. >> > >> >I suppose that this list reaches people who will want to defend the >> >pedagogical practices that this problem and this book exemplifies, and I >> >invite their comments: >> > >> >Norman Levitt >> >Dept. of Math, Rutgers U. >> > >> >Problem: >> >In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on >> >the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut or sold into >> >slavery. The square of twice the number of survivors is equal to 1/10-th >> >that number. What was that number? >> > >> > >> > > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 14:55:59 +0200 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Asia Lerner Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 01:13 PM 1/11/98 -0500, you wrote: >The book is: > >"The Elements of Algebra" by D. Harvey Hill (J.B. Lippincott, pub.) > >I find that Hill is also listed as author of: > >"A Consideration of the Sermon on the Mount" >and >"The Crucifixion of Christ" > >which suggests a religious, as well as political motivation. Actually, I can't imagine why somebody who sounds like a Christian Fundamentalist would be interested in slandering New Englanders. It would be interesting to know when this curious volume was published. I could not find it in the Library of Congress catalog. There are various entries under "Elements of Algebra", non by D. Harvey Hill, and there is a Daniel Harvey Hill who fought under general Lee, and does not sound like the type to write math primers in his spare time. Best regards, Asia Lerner >N. Levitt > > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:24:59 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 12 Jan 1998, Asia Lerner wrote: > Actually, I can't imagine why somebody who sounds like a Christian > Fundamentalist would be interested in slandering New Englanders. > > It would be interesting to know when this curious volume was published. I > could not find it in the Library of Congress catalog. There are various > entries under "Elements of Algebra", non by D. Harvey Hill, and there is a > Daniel Harvey Hill who fought under general Lee, and does not sound like > the type to write math primers in his spare time. > > Best regards, Asia Lerner > > >N. Levitt I congratulate Mr. Lerner on his dilligence. The book is cataloged in Harvard's Widener Library, which appears to have 3 copies. I personally have been trying to obtain a copy from rare book dealers, but no one I've contacted seems to be able to dig one up. Let me recapitulate contributions to date: ---------------------------- From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." My first respponse to this is that it involves a meaningless abstraction, and thus contributes to the students seeing the world in an "autistic" ("meaning blind", to borrow a phrase from Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations). More meaningful questions, depending on the desired level of mathematical sophistication, might range from: ......... Dr. McCormick seems to think that the problem is rather awkward, but the idea of using problems recounting this kind of sanguinary incident is sound. --------------------------------- From: "Thomas G. Karnofsky" Could you provide a reference for this problem? What book? There are also a few problems with the formulation of your question. What do you mean by the ethnic group label New Englander? How does the question slander them when it doesn't even mention them? It may be innappropriate, but why do you pick out this example? Why do you consider this political, as opposed to examples that perpetrate a benign view of the invasion of the Americas, which you would presumably consider objective and apolitical? ........ Mr. Karnfsky thinks the target of the indignation is unclear, and that I, personally, would prefer problems that glorify the American past, in particular, the hegemonic version of the American past. --------------------------------------- From: Gregory Murrie To me, rather than "slandering" New Englanders, it seems to do perhaps the diametrically opposite, trivialising the issue of the slaughter of Indians by reducing it to a mathematical problem. I think that taking the issue out of an arena where the political implications of the history can be discussed, no matter what they prove to be, is the problem here, ......... Mr. Murrie contends that putting such material in the context of math exercises trivializes the moral and political point. ---------------------- From: Patrick OBrien Yes, I grew up in the Plymouth, Mass. area, and I must agree with you. I firmly believe that facts should be eliiminated, or at least avoided. I'm well aware that the Yankee is stigma has been grossly exagerated. .......... Mr. O'Brien, deftly sarcastic, seems to think that I (or someone) advocates suppressing disagreeable (to the dominant faction) historical facts. ------------------------------- (to be continued) ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:25:42 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? (part 2) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Let me first note that Asia Lerner almost (but not quite) put 2 and 2 together. The author of "The Elements of Algebra," from which the problem is taken, is the same D. Harvey Hill who served as a high-ranking general in the Confederate forces, both under R.E. Lee (who couldn't stand his sarcastic tongue, and got rid of him) and Braxton Bragg (whom Hill unsuccessfully tried to get rid of, thus effectively terminating his combat career). Hill, a deeply religious man, was also a mean-minded, cantankerous sonovabitch, though whether he was as despicable as his brother-in-law, Stonewall Jackson, is a matter of some debate. The book in question precedes the war, and was published in 1857 when Hill, a West Point graduate who taught mathematics at a number of colleges, was head of the N. Carolina Military Institute. It is, indeed, intended as a slander against Yankees, whom Hill considered to be the scum of the earth, apparently. It is one of a number of "word problems" from his algebra book that depict Yankees--even his fellow Pesbyterians!!--as greedy, rapacious, violent, cruel, hypocritical, and disloyal. By contrast, one is to understand that the gentile classes of the white South represent the flower of chivalry and humanitarianism. Hill was, in short, one of the "Fire-eaters" who demanded either Southern dominance of the national political system, or secession of the slave states. For those who are mildly interested, I append a rather-too-flattering biographical sketch of Hill, which includes a reference to the book (which, by the way, is well known to Civil War buffs), and actually quotes the Pequod problem and a couple of others. My own point, however, is that "political correctness" in math classes has an ancient lineage, one which ought to make educational theorists leery of using a math class as a soapbox on behalf of political convictions, even passionately held ones. As the Hill example shows (and his pollitical convictions were as passionate as anyone's) any number of people can play this game, and once the math classroom is declared a hunting ground for political converts, there's no guarantee that the virtuous--meaning, of course, all the respondents to this thread--will be running the show. The more extended point is that even morally unexceptionable (as I view things) parables--there's little doubt that Hill was genuinely appalled by the bloodthirstyness of the 17th cent. settlers in this instance--can be used to advance rather questionable causes. Pace Messrs. Karanoksky and O'Brien, I don't take issue with the contention that the Pequods--and millions of other indiginous people--suffered horribly at the hands of European interlopers. (Of course, you all recognize that Melville made ironic use of this fact by naming Ahab'd doomed whaling ship the "Pequod".) What is less clear to me is that anyone who insists on recalling these horrors is, ipso facto, himself virtuous and politically wise. Any number of nationalist or ethnic chauvinist groups, whom one wouldn't trust with even a tiny fragment of political power, can point accurately to the horrors historically suffered by their particular group. One does well to keep in mind Gibbon's dictum that history is little but the register of crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind, and the group which was the martyr in one century might well be the butcher in another. This, by the way, includes many Native American groups, who were just as murderous as the Europeans, if somewhat less well-provided in weapons and tactics. And if you've a mind for historical trivia, please note that the last Confederate general to give up the fight was Stand Waitie, a full-blood Cherokee. End of sermon. A eulogy for Harvey Hill follows: ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:28:32 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? (part3) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII _________________________________________________________________ Daniel Harvey Hill: The Formative Years. By: Dr. Dan L. Morrill, Professor of History University of North Carolina at Charlotte On September 25, 1889, a passenger train pulled slowly out of Charlotte, North Carolina at approximately 7:30 a.m. and began hissing and screeching its way toward the small college town of Davidson about 20 miles to the north. It was to be a somber journey. Daniel Harvey Hill, called "Harvey" by his friends, who according to historian Shelby Foote had seen "about as much combat as any general on either side" in the Civil War, had died the previous afternoon of stomach cancer, and his corpse was being transported to its final resting place.[1] The train gathered speed. It passed the Ada Cotton Mill at the edge of town and started chugging down the track that led into the open countryside. Black smoke must have billowed out of the engine's stack and swirled into the autumn sky. Tenant farmers probably labored in the cotton fields along the route. The rhythmic clattering of the wheels might have prompted some of the travelers to recall Civil War battlefields like Big Bethel, Malvern Hill, Sharpsburg and Chickamauga, where D. H. Hill had dispatched young Southerners by the thousands into deadly clashes with the Yankees. Like many officers who led troops into battle during the Civil War, D. H. Hill is best remembered for his military exploits, Indeed, Hal Bridges, who has written the most substantial study of Hill's life, explains that his book "is not a biography but a study, with some biographical background, of Daniel Harvey Hill's Civil War career."[2] But Hill's formative years occurred before 1861 and were occupied largely with education. It was in the 1840's and 1850's that the character and personality of D. H. Hill took their final form. To focus mainly upon Hill's military career, however dramatic his actions on the battlefield might have been, is to overlook the fundamental forces that shaped him. Similar to his famous brother-in-law, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, Hill was a deeply religious man, almost morosely so. "During the Civil War No other general -- not even Stonewall Jackson -- went into battle with a firmer faith in God," says Hal Bridges in Lee's Maverick General.[3] Douglas Southall Freeman writes in Lee's Lieutenants that Hill "observed the Sabbath as diligently as did his brother-in-law . . ., and he always gave God the credit for victory."[4] "He was as earnest in his Puritan beliefs as was Stonewall Jackson," stated John Cheves Haskell, who served under D. H. Hill in eastern North Carolina in 1863.[5] In the opinion of J. W. Ratchford, his Confederate adjutant general or chief of staff, Hill had a "steady unswerving faith, . . . such as took God at his word and believed he was perfect in all his attributes."[6] In 1858, just three years before the outbreak of the Civil War, Hill proclaimed that Christianity alone "produces love, peace, joy."[7] Strange words coming from the mouth of a man who would soon become engulfed in four years of ghastly violence. Like many Presbyterians, Hill was a fatalist. In April, 1862, while serving under Joseph E. Johnston in the trenches outside Richmond, Va., he wrote in a letter to his wife that "all our affairs are in the hands of God."[8] "What was long admired in Gen. D. H. Hill was his devotion to revealed truth, his discipleship as a member of the Church militant and invisible," proclaimed the Wilmington Messenger on September 27, 1889.[9] His Christian beliefs, profoundly felt, had sustained Daniel Harvey Hill until the very end. The old Civil War hero experienced an excruciatingly painful death. Imagine what it was like to suffer the agony of stomach cancer in 1889. "He knew that his days were numbered," stated a Charlotte newspaper on the day following Hill's death, "and towards the last his prayers of family worship gave evidence of very close communion with His Heavenly Father."[10] D. H. Hill, Jr., a professor at the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and Nancy or Nannie Hill, his sister, both of whom had been at their father's bedside when he had expired, were on the train that late September morning. No doubt they too were comforted by knowing that their father had possessed an abiding religious faith.[11] It was 9:20 a.m. when the locomotive finally pulled up to the Davidson Depot. A large crowd waited on the platform. Classes at the college, where Hill had taught mathematics from 1854 to 1859, were canceled to allow the students and faculty to attend the solemn ceremonies that would transpire that day. The body was taken to the Presbyterian church, a Gothic Rival style brick edifice on the northeast corner of Concord Road and Main Street, where the funeral began at 11 o'clock.[12] Dr. John Bunyan Shearer, the president of Davidson College, took his text from 2nd Samuel, 3:38. Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel.[13] Shearer eulogized Hill. He praised the former general as a "fearless patriot" and a "military hero."[14] "The Gallant Confederate General Gone To His Rest," declared the headline in the Charlotte Chronicle.[15] The serenity of the funeral service must have struck some members of the audience as artificial and somewhat out of place. Daniel Harvey Hill, his religious proclivities notwithstanding, had been anything but serene, tranquil and soft spoken during his 68 years. Even C. D. Fishburne, an admiring colleague of his at Davidson College in the 1850's, admitted that Hill's "manner was direct."[16] "He was what he seemed. There was no hypocrisy or guile or sham about him," said the Wilmington Messenger.[17] There was a grim side to Hill"s directness, however. According to Ratchford, General Hill "could see and appreciate good or bad in those he came in contact with."[18] The truth was that D. H. Hill could be cantankerous, quarrelsome, and highly judgmental, especially toward his superiors. Pity the person who pricked his ire or stood in his way. "He was a bitter, sarcastic critic of the frailties of humans," says Jeffrey D. Wert in his biography of Hill's close associate in combat and fellow classmate at West Point, James Longstreet of Georgia.[19] According to John Haskell, D. H. Hill was "eccentric on the verge of wrongheadedness."[20] Many students remembered Daniel Harvey Hill with great affection both at Washington College, now Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., where he taught from 1849 until 1854, and at Davidson. D. H. Hill was a superb instructor. "He had the happy faculty," said J. W. Ratchford, "of imparting information, and what I appreciated most as a student was his ability to draw out what a boy knew."[21] "As a teacher I have never seen his superior," Fishburne exclaimed. "He had the rare capacity of interesting his pupils and of compelling them to use their faculties, often it seems unconsciously, in a manner that surprised themselves."[22] "In clearness of interpretation, in relevant and apposite illustration, he has never been excelled," proclaimed Henry E. Shepherd, a student of Hill's at the North Carolina Military Institute, a private military school that opened in Charlotte on October 1, 1859 with D. H. Hill as Superintendent.[23] ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:31:09 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? (part 4) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Daniel Harvey Hill was a complex, highly intelligent human being who exhibited an astounding array of attributes and characteristics. Called "irascible" by one scholar, he nonetheless had a tender and deeply sentimental side.[24] Ratchford noted that Hill "was as helpless in the affections of his wife and children as other mortals."[25] C. D. Fishburne described the impact that the death of Hill's eldest son, Robert Hall Morrison Hill, on April 5, 1857 had upon his father.[26] "I have never witnessed more intense anguish than his death caused to his father," Fishburne declared. "For a time I feared that the Major's mind could become seriously affected. All the fountains of tenderness and grief overflowed."[27] Hill's letters during the Civil War to his wife, Isabella, are replete with examples of familial affection, compassion and concern. On May 10, 1862, the dutiful husband and father gave explicit instructions to Isabella. Train our children to love God. Our gloomy Presbyterian ideas encourage fear of God, not love for him. Let our children be taught love love love. God be with you my child & the dear ones.[28] One month later he wrote: It is of infinite importance that you should be calm & have strong faith. Don't let little matters fret you. Make home attractive to the children. Those who have happy homes seldom turn out badly.[29] J. W. Ratchford, the former student and fellow South Carolinian who had served under Daniel Harvey Hill throughout the Civil War, from Big Bethel to Bentonville and all places in between, and who therefore probably knew "Harvey" Hill better than anyone outside Hill's immediately family, was fervent in praising his former commanding officer in a letter he wrote to D. H. Hill, Jr., most likely in 1890.. "No more able and gallant soldier or christian (sic.) gentleman and scholar sheathed his sword and submitted to the decrees of providence," Ratchford declared.[30] To understand the opinions and attitudes, especially the intense sectional pride, that characterized D. H. Hill's thinking one must begin by appreciating the circumstances of Hill's childhood. His years spent in Virginia and North Carolina notwithstanding, Daniel Harvey Hill was at the core of his being a South Carolinian. "He was intensely southern in his sympathies, filled with all the traditions of South Carolina, his native state," said C. D. Fishburne.[31] In a speech before the Davidson College Board of Trustees on February 28, 1855, Hill proclaimed: And what shall I say of the noble state in in which I was born? I have loved her with a love stronger than that of a woman. Yea, that love has only been strengthened by the abuse she has received from abolitionists, fools and false-hearted southrons. I pride myself upon nothing so much as having never permitted to pass, unrebuked, a slighting remark upon the glorious State that gave me being.[32] D. H. Hill did not like Yankees. His fierce disdain for folks from the North and particularly from New England, where abolitionists abounded, even found its way into the pages of an Algebra textbook he produced in 1857. Indeed, some of the problems he devised were almost humorous in terms of how they castigated the people of the North. A Yankee mixes a certain number of wooden nutmegs, which cost him 1/4 cent apiece, with a quantity of real nutmegs, worth 4 cents apiece, and sells the whole assortment for $44; and gains $3.75 by the fraud. How many wooden nutmegs were there?[33] In the year 1692, the people of Massachusetts executed, imprisoned, or privately persecuted 469 persons, of both sexes, and all ages, for alleged crime of witchcraft. Of these, twice as many were privately persecuted as were imprisoned, and 7 17/19 times as many more were imprisoned than were executed. Required the number of sufferers of each kind?[34] In the year 1637, all the Pequod Indians that survived the slaughter on the Mystic River were either banished from Connecticut, or sold into slavery. The square root of twice the number of survivors is equal to 1/10 that number. What was the number?[35] C. D. Fishburne was asked by Hill to read the manuscript before it was published. He was shocked by its contents. He expected it to deal with algebra, not politics. Fishburne told Hill that he "protested against his bringing into a book . . . allusions and references which smacked of sectional politics." Fishburne insisted that colleges and universities outside the South would not adopt the work because it contained superfluous material that was "offensive to those who lived in that happy region which lay north of Mason & Dixon's line." D. H. Hill, Fishburne reported, received these objections "very pleasantly but suggested that he did not care whether his book was received favorably by the Northern people or not."[36] Daniel Harvey Hill was an ardent admirer of John C. Calhoun, the legendary South Carolinian who had advanced the proposition that each individual State retained the power to nullify any Federal law it deemed to be unconstitutional. Although he died in 1850, John C. Calhoun was in a very real sense the "father of secession." " . . . how can I revere thee enough, birth-place (sic.) of the pure, spotless, incorruptible Calhoun," Hill exclaimed in his address in 1855 to the Davidson College Board of Trustees.[37] A cadet at the North Carolina Military Institute, obviously inspired by Hill, said the following about Calhoun in a letter that appeared in a Charlotte newspaper on March 13, 1860. . . . and last of all and greatest, Calhoun -- the logical, senatorial Calhoun, who loved his country, yet preferred to sacrifice his country rather than submit to oppression, or an invasion of Southern rights.[38] ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:33:35 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? (part 5) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII C. D. Fishburne, who had been Hill's student at Washington College and who resided in Hill's home after being recruited by Hill to join the Davidson College faculty in January, 1855, came to understand just how profoundly his mentor felt about South Carolina and about its famous native son, John C. Calhoun. One evening he casually mentioned in Hill's presence that he had little regard for Calhoun and his political ideas. The tension was immediate. Hill was furious. These remarks, Fishburne wrote, "were received by him silently and the conversation was broken off." Fishburne was devastated when Hill shunned him for several days. Finally, he went to Hill and apologized. "I assured him that I meant nothing offensive to him and . . . that my fealty to party was nothing compared with my attachments to friends."[39] Daniel Harvey Hill was born in the York District of South Carolina on July 12, 1821.[40] The youngest of eleven children, he was reared by his mother, Nancy Hill, because his father, Solomon, died when Daniel or "Harvey" was only four years old, leaving the family deeply in debt. It was on a small farm in this hilly region of upper South Carolina, just below the North Carolina line, that the future Confederate officer imbibed from his mother the unquestioning Calvinistic faith that molded his character and guided his actions throughout life. "I had always a strong perception of right and wrong," Hill remembered.[41] Images of a young boy laboring under a blistering, relentless South Carolina sun come readily to mind. He routinely joined his mother and his brothers and sisters to read Bible verses aloud before going into the fields to plow the thin topsoil of the Piedmont. On Sundays he traveled with his family to Bethel Presbyterian Church, where Nancy Hill, a stern but compassionate disciplinarian, made certain that all her children sat quietly in straight-backed pews while the preacher held sway. Adding drama to the scene were black slaves, compelled by their owners to attend the white man's church, peering down from the balcony. Hill "accepted the institution of Negro slavery" as part of Southern civilization, states Hal Bridges.[42] Outside in the Bethel Church Cemetery was the grave of D. H. Hill's paternal grandfather, William Hill, who had attained local fame because of his exploits as a resolute patriot and ironmaster during the American Revolutionary War. Nancy Hill's father, Thomas Cabeen, a scout for Thomas Sumter, the "Fighting Gamecock," had also earned a reputation for extraordinary bravery during the War for American Independence. This family tradition of resisting "tyranny" would play no small part in shaping D. H. Hill's political attitudes towards the North when sectional antagonisms intensified in the years preceding the Civil War. Like so many supporters of the Confederacy, Daniel Harvey Hill believed that America's second effort in nation building, in 1861, was just as legitimate as its first effort, in 1776. "As a boy in South Carolina he had listened to endless stories of how Grandfather Hill and other Southerners had won the Revolutionary War," writes Hal Bridges.[43] In his provocative study of the political culture of the ante-bellum South, Masters and Statesmen. The Political Culture of American Slavery, Kenneth S. Greenberg asserts that "Southern anxieties about England, inherited from the republican ideology of the revolutionary period and reinforced by later events, underwent a slow transformation into a fear of New England and the North."[44] D. H. Hill was certain that his opposition to the Yankees was equivalent to his grandfathers' exploits against the British. "Northerners just seemed to copy everything that England had done -- encourage slave revolts, fail to return fugitive slaves, prevent the extension of slavery, develop an abolitionist movement, exploit labor, and threaten liberty with power," Greenberg maintains.[45] Nancy Hill did not have enough money to send her youngest child to college. Consequently, she was gratified when "Harvey" was recommended for appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1838. Admitted as a cadet on June 1st, D. H. Hill went on to graduate Number 28 in a class of 56 in 1842. Interestingly, he received some of his lowest marks in mathematics, the academic discipline he would later teach at Washington College and Davidson College. Despite his more or less average performance as a cadet, the young South Carolinian did acquire at West Point a lasting respect for the advantages and benefits of military education. "It is . . . impossible to over estimate the influence of military schools upon the welfare of society," Hill proclaimed in 1860. "Were it possible to train all our young men in them, lawlessness would be absolutely unknown and unheard of in the next generation."[46] Daniel Harvey Hill distinguished himself as a soldier in the Mexican War. Invariably a rapacious fighter, he helped Zachary Taylor capture Monterrey and fought under Winfield Scott at Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo, and led storming parties at Padierna and Chapultepec, for which he was singled out for special praise. "He was one of the six officers in the whole force employed in Mexico who were twice breveted for meritorious service upon the field," says one of Hill's biographers.[47] "He believed that war meant to kill, and that the speediest way to whip your enemy was to hurt him," commented a newspaper editor many years later.[48] When the South Carolina Legislature decided to award swords to the three bravest of its soldiers in the Mexican War, Hill was selected as one of the recipients. On November 2, 1848, Hill married Isabella Morrison, daughter of Robert Hall Morrison, the first president of Davidson College, and granddaughter of General Joseph Graham, who had seen extensive service in the Revolutionary War, including the Battle of Charlotte, and the Battle of Cowan's Ford on the Catawba River. An intelligent woman with requisite Presbyterian piety, Isabella had met "Harvey" while he was visiting one of his married sisters, who lived near Cottage Home, the residence of the Morrisons in Lincoln County, North Carolina. In February, 1849, D. H. Hill resigned from the army and traveled with his young bride to Lexington, Va., where he accepted a position as a Professor of Mathematics at Washington College. "I have never regretted leaving the service," he wrote some years later.[49] It was in Lexington, Va. that he renewed his acquaintance with Thomas J. Jackson, later "Stonewall" Jackson, whom he had met during the Mexican War. Hill played no small part in Jackson's obtaining a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute, also in Lexington, in 1851. Indeed, he recommended Jackson for the job. In a letter he wrote to D. H. Hill, Jr. on February 8, 1890, C. D. Fishburne gave a poignant description of his early encounters with his mathematics instructor at Washington College. "He was then comparatively a young man, wore full whiskers but no mustache, was slightly built, of serious aspect, to us youngsters at least."[50] Fishburne went on to explain that the students were surprised by Hill's generally disheveled appearance. Unlike the other West Point graduates who taught at Washington College, he was "careless in his dress," Fishburne declared, "a fact that impressed us the more because we knew him as having been an officer of the U.S. Army."[51] His students at Washington College, as mentioned earlier, held Daniel Harvey Hill in highest esteem as a teacher. "He was regarded as strictly impartial and very generous in recognizing and encouraging any originality and unusual ability among his pupils," said Fishburne.[52] ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:37:55 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? (part 6) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On August 10, 1853, the Board of Trustees of Davidson College voted to invite Daniel Harvey Hill to become a Professor of Mathematics at their fledgling institution of higher education.[53] D. H. Hill was thoroughly familiar with Davidson, because his father-in-law, Robert Hall Morrison, had been the college's first president. Even though he was quite content to remain in Lexington, Va., where he had "received not a single mark of discourtesy, or disrespect," Hill accepted the position at Davidson, largely because of his "desire to labor in a College, founded in the prayers, and by the liberality of Presbyterians."[54] Also, the Board of Trustees had agreed to support his "views . . . in regard to the standard of education, and system of government of the College."[55] C. D. Fishburne explained that Hill "entered on his duties with the assurance that he would be heartily sustained by a large majority of the Trustees in every effort he might make to completely change the College, in the standards of scholarship and behavior."[56] What happened over the next five years at Davidson College illustrates just how tenacious and persistent "Harvey" Hill could be. Nothing could seemingly dissuade this man from trying to attain an objective once he had decided to pursue it. Nothing. To put matters bluntly, the Board of Trustees wanted Hill to take charge and subdue the violence that was threatening to destroy the college. "Major Hill was . . . induced to accept the place by the urgent request of prominent friends of the College who were dissatisfied with its condition," said Fishburne.[57] The 33-year-old South Carolinian was eager to meet the challenge. The behavior of the students, like that on many other college campuses in the South, was raucous and unsettling. Many of the approximately 90 students were virtually out of control.[58] Riots were common. Drinking and carousing were widespread. If suspended, troublemakers would not go home, largely because they did not have enough money to pay their way. Waiting to be readmitted, they would walk around campus or sleep all day in the town's boarding houses. Even worse, at night, under the cover of darkness, they would entertain themselves by making mischief, much of it mean spirited. On Thursday, December 22, 1853, for example, students attacked the houses of two professors with rocks and eggs and set off several bombs on the campus, "the report being heard some four or five miles around the College."[59] On Friday, April 21, 1854, a "wooden building was demolished" during a campus riot.[60] One student even put gunpowder into a candle snuffer, which exploded when it was used. The unsuspecting owner suffered serious damage to one eye.[61] After fulfilling his obligations at Washington College, Hill arrived in Davidson on May 28, 1854, and almost immediately began implementing major changes in the academic program. Uppermost on his agenda was the installation of the same military grading system of merits and demerits used at many colleges during the 1850's, including Washington College and West Point. Not a few students, Hill insisted, had been "allowed to trample upon all laws, human and divine." These surly youngsters had an "undisciplined mind, an uncultivated heart, yet with exalted ideas of personal dignity, and a scowling contempt for lawful authority, and wholesome restraint," he lamented.[62] Hill insisted the he knew how to end such fractious behavior. Never one to mince words, especially when he believed that somebody in authority was incompetent, Hill lashed out at Samuel Williamson, the College's president. "The character of a College depends mainly upon the character of its President," Hill told the Board of Trustees several months later.[63] In August, 1854, Williamson resigned when it became clear that the combative new mathematics professor was going to prevail. Hill also offered to quit, but the Board of Trustees insisted that he stay. As promised, the Board of Trustees approved Hill's new grading system of merits and demerits, on August 8, 1854. The most severe punishment was bestowed upon those students guilty of "profanity, fighting, disorderly conduct in recitation rooms, in Chapel, or on the Campus." There were also severe penalties for students "being improperly dressed in Chapel, in recitation rooms, or on Campus."[64] Clearly, a restrictive new regime was taking control at Davidson College, and Daniel Harvey Hill was its indomitable leader. The days of lax discipline were over. The minutes of the Davidson College Faculty are replete with examples of professors, especially D. H. Hill, subjecting students to exacting regulations. These included unannounced inspections of dormitory rooms to make sure that students were studying, informing parents when their children were "too frequently absent from College duties," and reading each Monday in Chapel a "list of the delinquencies and offenses" that had occurred the pervious week.[65] ". . . on account of noise on the campus, Profs. Hill and Fishburn (sic.) inspected the College Buildings and found that Messrs. Bailey, and R. B. Caldwell were absent from their rooms," the Faculty minutes declared on one occasion.[66] D. H. Hill was particularly concerned about students drinking whiskey. The minutes of one meeting stated: Faculty met, and after the usual business, some conversation was had about certain students being addicted to drinking, and it was reported that a citizen of the village had informed a mem- ber of the Faculty that there was a good deal of drinking this term among the students. Where- upon, it was agreed, on motion of Major Hill, that the Faculty visit the students' rooms one night of this week.[67] There was also anxiety about the presence of firearms on campus. The Faculty stipulated that "no student be allowed to use fire-arms (sic.), except on Saturday, and at no time on the College premises."[68] The new instruments of control even extended to visitors to the campus. In May, 1855, the Faculty hired policemen and directed them "to disperse negroes who may collect about the College on Sundays."[69] It was against the background of these developments that a large number of students rioted with particular ferocity on the night of December 21, 1854. No doubt harboring deep resentments over the enforcement of Hill's restrictive measures, the participants in this uprising expressed their anger by lighting fires and throwing rocks and eggs at two professors' houses, including the home of J. R. Gilland, the president of the Faculty. Rocks flew through the air. One struck Hill in the forehead. Undismayed, blood dripping down his face, the feisty mathematics professor pressed the attack, just as he had done in the Mexican War and as he would do later in battle after battle with the Yankees during the Civil War. Gradually the students retreated and began to slip away into the darkness. Hill ordered the Faculty -- there were only four members -- to enter the dormitories to make sure which students had stayed in their rooms. All the students were either at their desks studying or asleep in their beds when the faculty entered. One room was locked. Hill smashed in the door with an ax, rushed in and found D. Newton, a known mischief-maker, feigning sleep but still wearing his boots. The repercussions of this student uprising were dramatic and profound, at least for Davidson College. An inquisition of sorts occurred the next day, when the entire student body was ordered to appear before the Faculty and explain their whereabouts the night before. Not surprisingly, everybody insisted that they had not taken part in the recent disturbance. On December 26th, the Faculty suspended D. Newton for three months for "his inattention to his studies, . . . his having used in a written essay disrespectful language to a Professor, and from the strong circumstantial evidence to convict him of participating in a riot on the night of the 21st."[70] Forty-two students, more than 50 percent of those attending Davidson College, signed a petition requesting that Newton be allowed to remain. The document contended that convicting Newton on mere circumstantial evidence was "inconsistent with the principles of justice, and contrary to the dictates of reason."[71] When D. H. Hill and his colleagues refused to adhere to the their wishes, the protesting students left school, many never to return. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:31:08 -0500 Reply-To: Hank Bromley Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Hank Bromley Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 12 Jan 1998, Asia Lerner wrote: > Actually, I can't imagine why somebody who sounds like a Christian > Fundamentalist would be interested in slandering New Englanders. > > It would be interesting to know when this curious volume was published. I > could not find it in the Library of Congress catalog. There are various > entries under "Elements of Algebra", non by D. Harvey Hill, and there is a > Daniel Harvey Hill who fought under general Lee, and does not sound like > the type to write math primers in his spare time. In fact, I believe that's our man. The OCLC catalog does list the book, with a publication date in the 1850's, along with various works on the Confederacy, and the previously mentioned theological writings, by the same author. Given the context, Norman Levitt's original contention that the problem was intended to portray New Englanders in a poor light gains plausibility. I could certainly believe the author wished to make Northern criticism of slavery appear hypocritical against the background of their own genocidal treatment of the indigenous inhabitants (although I don't see how it's "slanderous," assuming the author's account of this particular episode is accurate). In any case, I agree with those who have said the example makes poor use of the information about the slaughter, and is not pedagogically sound. -- Hank Bromley ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:42:16 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Norman Levitt Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? (part 7) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Daniel Harvey Hill did not seek to be popular. In his opinion, neither should colleges. Too many colleges and universities, he insisted, had become little more than "polishing and varnishing" institutions, because they did everything necessary to maintain their enrollment, including sacrificing academic standards.[72] And what kind of graduates did such places produce? "An occasional scholar is sent out from their walls, whilst thousands of conceited ignoramuses are spawned forth with not enough Algebra to equate their minds with zero," Hill proclaimed in his official inaugural address to the Board of Trustees on February 28, 1855. [73] " . . . ninnies take degrees," the acerbic major continued, "and blockheads bear away the title of Bachelor of Arts; though the only art they acquired in College was the art of yelling, ringing of bells, and blowing horns in nocturnal rows."[74] D. H. Hill believed that human beings were by nature wretched and sinful creatures. "Self-abasement and self-abhorrence must lie at the very foundation of the Christian character," Hill wrote in 1858.[75] Regardless of its origins, this predilection to emphasize the negative aspects of human deportment brought a certain harshness to Hill's rhetoric. Indeed, his inaugural address at Davidson was full of vituperative language. Without rewards for good behavior, the majority of students would "speedily acquire idle habits, and learn to drone away their time between lounging, cards, cigars, and whiskey punch," Hill maintained.[76] And as for those miscreants who had no desire to improve their behavior, they would "congregate together around their filthy whiskey bottle, like ill-omened vultures around a rotten carcass." It was this tendency toward invective and pointing out the faults in others that caused many people to dislike Daniel Harvey Hill. But Hal Bridges, his biographer, reminds us that Hill was a man of many facets. "At every stage of his career, the attractive qualities . . . were liberally intermingled with his prickly traits of character," says Bridges.[77] Davidson College derived enormous benefits from having "Harvey" Hill on its faculty. In addition to leading the effort to restore discipline, he labored tirelessly to strengthen the academic program. He persuaded the Board of Trustees to purchase new equipment for the Mathematics Department. He brought C. D. Fishburne to Davidson and agreed to pay Fishburne's salary for two years if the money could not be raised to meet this obligation -- no small commitment when his own annual salary was just $1705. It was during Hill's tenure at Davidson that Salisbury, North Carolina merchant Maxwell Chambers bequeathed $300,000 to the college. Ratchford insisted that this gift was a direct result of the improvements that Hill had championed. "This I presume is the largest Legacy ever left to one College in the Southern States," said Robert Hall Morrison, D. H. Hill's father-in-law.[78] Anyone doubting the importance of his contributions to the overall improvement of Davidson College need only read what the Board of Trustees said about D. H. Hill when he resigned from the faculty on July 11, 1859. That whilst we, as a Board of Trustees, accede to the wishes of Major D. H. Hill, we accept his resignation with very great reluctance, much regretting to lose from our Institution such a pure and high minded Christian gentleman, diligent and untiring student; thorough and ripe scholar, and able faithful, and successful Instructor -- especially in his Department -- as Major Hill as ever proved himself to be since he came amongst us.[79] In 1859, no doubt at D. H. Hill's urging, the General Assembly of North Carolina enacted legislation which assured that his impact upon campus life at Davidson College would endure. The law stipulated that no person could "erect, keep, maintain or have at Davidson College, or within three miles thereof, any tippling house, establishment or place for the sale of wines, cordials, spirituous or malt liquors."[80] It prohibited "any billiard table, or other public table of any kind, at which games of chance or skill (by whatever name called) may be played."[81] The punishments for violating these prohibitions were severe, especially for slaves. They were "to receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back."[82] The departure of Daniel Harvey Hill from Davidson College came as no surprise. It was widely known that he was about to become the Superintendent of the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte. As early as June 29, 1858, the Western Democrat, a Charlotte newspaper, had announced that the "services of a distinguished gentleman, a graduate of West Point," had been secured for the position.[83] On September 28, 1858, the newspaper reported that Daniel Harvey Hill would indeed be the Superintendent. "The mere mention of this fact we think will insure confidence in the success of the undertaking," the Western Democrat proclaimed.[84] The impetus for establishing the North Carolina Military Institute was provided by a group of Charlotte businessmen and professionals headed by Dr. Charles J. Fox.[85] "Those gentlemen who originated and pushed forward the scheme are entitled to much credit for energy and zeal," said the Western Democrat.[86] They raised $15,000 by selling stock to individuals and received $10,000 from the City of Charlotte, also to purchase stock. The voters had approved this financial outlay in a special referendum held on March 27, 1858.[87] Dr. Fox and his associates bought a tract of land about one-half mile south of Charlotte beside the tracks of the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad and hired Sydney Reading, a contractor, to oversee the construction of Steward's Hall, a massive, castle-like, three and four-story brick edifice designed to look like the buildings at West Point.[88] A festive ceremony was held on the grounds on Saturday, July 31, 1858, when the cornerstone was laid. William A. Graham, the Governor of North Carolina, spoke to a "large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen."[89] Classes began at the North Carolina Military Institute on October 1, 1859.[90] The institute had two departments. A Primary Department for boys from 12 to 15 and a Scientific Department for young men from 15 to 21. Chartered by the North Carolina Legislature to award degrees, the Scientific Department, which had 60 cadets enrolled during the first year, patterned its curriculum after the courses taught at West Point, which meant that it emphasized such technical and scientific skills as engineering, surveying, mathematics and chemistry, plus the art of warfare. The influence of D. H. Hill over the educational philosophy of the North Carolina Military Institute was paramount. In keeping with his gloomy appraisal of human nature, Hill insisted that discipline must be rigorously enforced. Just as at Davidson College, he held firmly to the belief that young men, unless closely supervised, would inevitably go astray. "The great sin of the age," he told the Education Committee of the North Carolina Legislature in January, 1861, "is resistance to established authority."[91] The Superintendent wrote a lengthy description of the school's mission shortly before the institute opened in 1859. The organization of this Institution and the principles upon which it is based entitle it to the patronage of the State. The instruc- tion imparted is peculiarly suited to our Southern agricultural population; the dis- cipline is of the kind most popular with Southern youth; the prohibition of pocket- money and the dressing of all alike in one common uniform prevent extravagance and the indulgence in crime, and cut off the pride and ostentation engendered by fine clothes; the exercise required in drilling, parading and in guard duty, preserves the health, and occupies that time which might otherwise be spent in vice.[92] As expected, Christianity, although non-sectarian, occupied a central place in the instructional program of the North Carolina Military Institute. "Will not Christians, especially, furnish the youthful cadets with that sound, healthful and pure literature which the young so much need?", Hill asked.[93] Cadets had to attend chapel twice daily -- in the morning to listen to a sermon and in the afternoon to hear Biblical instruction -- as well as go to church on Sunday. Henry E. Shepherd, a cadet at the Institute, remembered Superintendent Hill's lectures in the chapel with fondness. "I listened eagerly to the comments of the 'Major' as he read the Scriptures in chapel and at times revealed their infinite stylistic power," he wrote many years later.[94] J. W. Ratchford, who had left Davidson College and had followed D. H. Hill to the North Carolina Military Institute, also remembered attending chapel and listening to his mentor speak. Hill spoke about politics too. When word arrived that South Carolina had seceded on December 20, 1860, many of the cadets from South Carolina, including Ratchford, considered withdrawing from school and going home to support their native state. "Gen. Hill made us a talk . . . one morning, telling us that if we did have a war he expected to go, and advised us to stay at school until it was certain," Ratchford reported.[95] One comes away from examining those fateful weeks in the first half of 1861 with the distinct feeling that Hill, in keeping with his long-held convictions, was willing to fight to protect the Southern way of life but that he sincerely hoped that war would not occur. D. H. Hill had no illusions about the horrible realities of military combat. "Recruiting sergeants, with their drums and fifes, try to allure by 'the pride, pomp, and circumstance of war;' they never allude to the hot, weary marches, the dreary night-watches, the mangled limbs, and crushed carcasses of the battle-field (sic.)," he proclaimed.[96] Hill was proud of the South's military tradition. "The armies of the Revolution were commanded by Washington, a Southern General," he told an audience in Wilmington, N.C.[] But he knew that a struggle with the North would be long and arduous. After Confederate troops opened fire on the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter in the harbor at Charleston, S. C. on April 12, 1861, Hill summoned the young cadets to the chapel in Steward's Hall on the outskirts of Charlotte and told them what to expect in the weeks, months and years ahead. His words were tragically prophetic. Ratchford recalled what the Superintendent said: He warned us that it would be no child's play, and the chances were that it would last as long as the Revolutionary war, and we would all get enough of it. He mentioned the contrast between the resources of the North and the South, both in men and means. . . .[98] The second half of April, 1861, witnessed a flurry of activity at the North Carolina Military Institute. A particularly dramatic scene occurred when the cadets raised a secession flag, made by the ladies of Charlotte, over Steward's Hall so the passengers on the trains moving north out of South Carolina could see it. James H. Lane, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and a member of Hill's faculty, described what happened when the next locomotive passed by the campus. ". . . the artillery thundered its greetings to South Carolina as the train passed slowly by: the male passengers yelled themselves hoarse; the ladies waved their handkerchiefs and threw kisses to these brave boys."[99] North Carolina Governor John W. Ellis summoned D. H. Hill to Raleigh to organize the State's first military instruction camp. The cadets followed soon thereafter. They marched as a body into Charlotte and boarded trains headed for the State capital on April 26th. Crowds lined the platform as the locomotive pulled away from the station. It was Friday night. Steward Hall was turned over to the State as a place for volunteers to rendezvous. The halls were silent. The classrooms were empty. The chapel was still. The Old South was entering its death agony. Two members of the faculty of the North Carolina Military Institute would perish in the Peninsula Campaign, and James H. Lane would be wounded twice. D. H. Hill would bring to the Civil War those same attributes which had served him so well during the 1840's and 1850's. Persistence. Integrity. Bravery. But he would also display the irascible side of his makeup. [references omitted] ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 16:26:41 +0000 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Gideon Lichfield Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? (part 2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Without reading the biog of Daniel Harvey Hill (apologies if it contained material of relevance), a response to Norm Levitt's lessons from the maths example: >My own point, however, is that "political correctness" in math classes >has an ancient lineage, one which ought to make educational >theorists leery of using a math class as a soapbox on behalf of >political convictions, even passionately held ones. As the Hill >example shows (and his pollitical convictions were as passionate as >anyone's) any number of people can play this game, .......< But, equally, doesn't this invite us not to worry? It suggests that the present unease, and occasional public brouhaha, about "politically correct" mathematical problems is unfounded, given that social issues have permeated the teaching of mathematics for so long without apparent ill effect. Unless, that is, someone has evidence of such an ill-effect. (NB this is separate from the worry that the standards of mathematics or science teaching are declining as a result of postmodern or politically correct beliefs about how to educate.) >The more extended point is that even morally unexceptionable (as I >view things) parables... ... can be used to advance rather >questionable causes. >What is less clear to me is that anyone who insists on >recalling these horrors is, ipso facto, himself virtuous and politically >wise. In the case of modern-day politically correct maths, what are the causes being advanced, who is advancing them, and how effective is the advancement? Social issues of all kinds can and do permeate teaching in every subject, and in maths and science surely less than in others such as languages ("Translate into Spanish, 'The Pequod brave was brutally slaughtered by the technologically-advantaged white infantryman' "), history, economics and so on. The social issues reflect the preoccupations of the day; they are introduced mostly by teachers; and it was ever thus. If the worry is that children pick up political or cultural bias, the amount they get from their science classes is surely tiny compared with the bombardment of ideas and attitudes they receive in other areas -- both in school and outside it. If the worry is that it makes science teaching worse, what is the evidence? Gideon Lichfield science/tech correspondent --------------------- The Economist --------------------- 25 St. James's Street, London SW1A 1HG tel: +44 171 830 7066 fax: +44 171 839 2968 gideonlichfield@economist.com ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 14:31:47 +0000 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: Robert Maxwell Young Subject: Ingleby classic article on reification at psa-public-sphere/free assns. web site Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I have added the following article to those archived at the psa-public-sphere/Free Associations web site http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/rmy/fa.html David Ingleby 'Ideology and the Human Sciences: Some Comments on the Role of Reification in Psychology and Psychiatry' 98K This is a classic article, written by a psychologist trained in the Department of Experimental Psychology at Cambridge, who took up a critical stance and became a leading figure in the movement to humanize psychology and psychiatry. It is a fine example of an academic using all his academic training to think critically about the assumptions of his own discipline. It first appeared in _The Human Context_ and was reprinted in a collection which was very influential in the student movement, Trevor Pateman, ed., _Counter Course: An Handbook for Course Criticism_, Penguin Education, 1972, pp. 51-81 The following writings are also at the web site (with summaries): Ros Minsky, 'Fragrant Theory: The Sweet Scent of Signifiers' Laurence J. Gould, Ph.D., 'Correspondence Between Bion's Basic Assumption Theory and Klein's Developmental Positions: an Outline' W. Gordon Lawrence, 'The Presence of Totalitarian States of Mind in Institutions' Kenneth Eisold, 'Psychoanalysis Today: Implications for Organizational Applications' Review by Paul Hoggett of Anton Obholzer & Vega Zagier Roberts, eds., _The Unconscious at Work: Individual and Organisational Stress in the Human Services_, London: Routledge, 1994. Pp. xx+224. =A314.99 Review by Jo Nash of Rozsika Parker, _Torn in Two: The Experience of Materna= l Ambivalence_. London: Virago, 1995. Pp. 299. Review by Deborah Marks of Lennard J. Davis, _Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness and the Body_ London: Verso, 1995. Michael Rustin and Andrew Cooper, 'Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere: The Project in Changing Times' Norman Holland, 'Internet Regression' Robert M. Young, 'Psychoanalysis and/of the Internet' Robert M. Young, 'Disappointment, Stoicism and the Future of Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere' __________________________________________ In making a personal reply, please put in Subject line: Message for Bob Youn= g Robert Maxwell Young: robert@rmy1.demon.co.uk or r.m.young@sheffield.ac.uk, 26 Freegrove Rd., London N7 9RQ, Eng. tel.+44 171 607 8306 fax.+44 171 609 4837 Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies, Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, University of Sheffield. Home page and writings: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/ Process Press publications: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/process_press/index.html 'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' - Camus ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 20:48:15 +0100 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: John Falkenberg Subject: sign off Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 15:04:41 -0500 Reply-To: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: "Rooney,John Peter" Subject: Re: sign off JOHN PETER ROONEY ASQ CERTIFIED RELIABILITY ENGINEER #2425 E-Mail: jprooney@foxboro.com >---------- >From: John Falkenberg[SMTP:john.falkenberg@SWIPNET.SE] >Sent: Monday, January 12, 1998 2:48PM >To: SCIENCE-AS-CULTURE@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU >Subject: sign off > >> >> > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 18:44:50 -0500 Reply-To: bradmcc@cloud9.net Sender: Sci-Cult Science-as-Culture From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." Organization: AbiCo. Subject: Re: Appropriate math problems? (part 2) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Gideon Lichfield wrote: [snip] > In the case of modern-day politically correct maths, what are the causes > being advanced, who is advancing them, and how effective is the > advancement? Shouldn't this be a key question to be asked about *everything*? There is no such thing as a value neutral entity in the human world, and "value neutrality" is itself always *one* form of value agenda ("the end of ideology" was synonymous with the vision of a universal triumph of liberal and relatively humane capitalism, e.g.). > Social issues of all kinds can and do permeate > teaching in every subject, and in maths and science surely less than in > others such as languages ("Translate into Spanish, 'The Pequod brave > was brutally slaughtered by the technologically-advantaged white > infantryman' "), history, economics and so on. The very fact that one is teaching math and/or science is itself a big value stance, as the biblical fundamentalists rightly argue. > The social issues reflect > the preoccupations of the day; they are introduced mostly by teachers; > and it was ever thus. If the worry is that children pick up political or > cultural bias, the amount they get from their science classes is surely > tiny compared with the bombardment of ideas and attitudes they > receive in other areas -- both in school and outside it. If the worry is that it > makes science teaching worse, what is the evidence? [snip] The ideology of scientific praxis is a serious issue, and perhaps students should learn something about, e.g., the plight of Galileo, who was silenced by intimidation from The Roman Catholic Church (as Jacob Bronowski put it: The Church knew that all that was needed was to *show* Galileo the instruments of torture, and his imagination would do the rest). What might the modern world be like had Galileo called the Church's bluff? (Bertold Brecht's play _Galileo_ offers one fine (from *my perspective* commentary on this affair)....) Would modern science be more socially self-accountable and self-aware, rather than most scientific and technically trained people seeing themselves only as doing "value neutral" activity? Would Rabelais and Erasmus be the models of "modernity" instead of Descartes (Stephen Toulmin's book _Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity_ is IMO a seminal text here). Would hermeneutics rather than brain physics be hegemonous in the self-understanding (or lack thereof...) of educated persons? \brad mccormick -- Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world. Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / bradmcc@cloud9.net (914)238-0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA ------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/ ===================================================================