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Role of Science in Society
Course title: The Role of Science Society;
CRN numbers: ENGL: 20027, 20028; OEAS: 17648, 17649
Credits: 3
Course type: Distance learning/on campus
Instructors: Dr. Hans-Peter Plag, Michelle Heart
Listing Departments: ENGL 795/895, OEAS 795/895 Advanced/Special Topics
Term: Fall 2015; Fridays 11:00 - 2:00; Gornto Room 205
Contact Information: hpplag at odu.edu; mheart at odu.edu
- Week 1: Intro to class, syllabus, and homework: reading & discussion board:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Oreskes TED video
Hahn, D., 1979. A Burkean Analysis of Lincoln's Second Address. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 9(4). pdf. See http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27547509?uid=3739936&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104619686983 for free on-line reading.
Lincoln, A., 1865. Second Inaugural Address. Available at http://wwww.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html.
Kenneth Burke: The essential role of Kenneth Burke in rhetorical theory is in the specifying of the Classical notions from general "persuasion" to a critical "identification" that involves "motive." For Burke, language was action revealing the motives of the actor/agent. He also developed a system/formula of language/text analysis called "Pentad." Briefly and generally speaking, rhetoric is based on universal cognitive formulas that are applicable to all fields and disciplines the same, including the sciences. Although Burke did not specifically addressed sciences, this universality factor makes his method of analysis applicable to scientific texts and literature.
Additional Reading:
Burke, K., 1949. A Grammar of Motives. Prentice Hall, Inc. "A Grammar of Motives," published in 1945, is the first volume of a gigantic trilogy, planned to include A Rhetoric of Motives and A Symbolic of Motives, which will be called something like On Human Relations. The aim of the whole series is no less than the comprehensive exploration of human motives and the forms of thought and expression built around them, and its ultimate object, expression in the epigraph: 'ad bellum purificandum,' is to eliminate the whole world of conflict that can be eliminated through understanding. The method or key metaphor for the study is 'drama' or 'dramatism,' and the basic terms of analysis are the dramatistic pentad: Act, Scene, Agent, Agency, and Purpose. The Grammar, which Burke confesses in the Introduction grew from a prolegomena of a few hundred words to nearly 200,000, is a consideration of the purely internal relationship of these five terms, 'their possibilities of transformation, their range of permutations and combinations'..." — Stanley Edgar Hyman, author of The Armed Vision. See e.g. Google Books.
Burke, K., 1974. The Philosophy of Literary Form, University of California Press, 1974. See e.g., Google Books.
- Week 2: Ethics: science ethics, environmental ethics:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Leopold, A., 1949. The Land Ethic. Available at: http://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/landethic.html. See also http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/landethic.shtml. for details.
Hardin, G., 1968. The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162(3859), 1243-1248, DOI: 10.1126/science.162.3859.1243. Available at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243.full
Kennedy, R. F., Jr., 2006. Crimes Against Nature, 18 St. Thomas L. Rev. 693, available at http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty/582/.
Additional Reading:
Gardiner, S., 2006. A perfect moral storm: Climate change, intergenerational ethics and the problem of moral corruption. Environmental Values, 15, 397-413. Describes how the global, intergenerational, and theoretical nature of the climate change problem allow for moral corruption through a number of psychological mechanisms.
Markowitz, E. M., and Shariff, A. F., 2012. Climate change and moral judgment. Nature Climate Change, 2(4), 243-247. Describes six psychological challenges to the human moral judgment system and why people don't react.
Boyce, J. K., 2013. Economics, The Environment and Our Common Wealth. Edward Elgar Publishing Inc. See http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/9075669bb1167c89a85947735ace6a03/publication/547/ Economy for Humanity, 2014. See web.
Ruane, K. A., 2011. Fairness Doctrine: History and Constitutional Issues. Congressional Research Service, www.crs.gov R40009. Available here.
- Week 3: Rhetoric & Logical Fallacies discussion:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Rapp, Christof, "Aristotle's Rhetoric", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2010 Edition), available at: http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/aristotle-rhetoric/#means
Additional Reading:
http://www.richardmckeon.org/content/a-Content-Update_a/McK-Rhetoric&PoeticInPhilOfAristotle.pdf.
Corbett, E. P. J., xxxx. The Rhetoric and the Poetics of Aristotle, Translation & Intro.
Plato, The Republic (Some passages, Critical Essays)
Ceccarelli, L., 2011. Manufactured Scientific Controversy: Science, Rhetoric, and Public Debate. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 14(2), 195-228, DOI: 10.1353/rap.2010.0222, see pdf.
Fuller, S., 2013. Manufactured Scientific Consensus: A Reply to Ceccarelli. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 16(4), see html.
Ceccarelli, L., 2013. Controversy Over Manufactured Scientific Controversy: A Rejoinder to Fuller. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 16(4), see html.
Also: Logical Fallacies handout, lecture, discussion, sample media articles for comparison analysis
- Week 4: Foundations/roots of environmental literature:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Emerson, R. W., 1907. Self Reliance. In Turpin, E. H. L. (ed.), 2005, Essays, pages 79-116. Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#SELF-RELIANCE.
Emerson, R. W., 1907. Nature. In Turpin, E. H. L. (ed.), 2005, Essays, pages 193-216. See http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#NATURE.
Additional Reading:
Carson, R., 1962. Silent Spring.
Thoreau, H. D., ????. Walden
Cronon, W., 1996. The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature. Environmental History, 1(1), pp. 7-2. pdf
"The Undersea World Of Jacques Cousteau - Search In The Deep of the Oceans"; see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxJisP8x3Ok Lovelock, J., 1979. Gaia — A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford University Press. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock. Also: http://ecolo.org/lovelock/what_is_Gaia.html.
"An inconvenient truth": "documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate made in the film, he has given more than a thousand times." See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth.
- Week 5: Methods of science, modern philosophy and paradigm shifts:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Oreskes, N., 2014. Scaling Up Our Vision. ISIS. DOI: 10.1086/676574. See here
Glass, G., 2013. How Science Works - an overview of the philosophy with particular emphasis on Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. Video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g04D24HfW18.
Rees, M. C., 2012. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions at Fifty, The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society, Fall 2012, see here.
Additional Reading:
Kuhn, T, 1962. The structure of scientific revolutions. Available as pdf. Classic history of science essay that defines normal science and how paradigm shifts redefine science so that what was before is now unscientific. Defines science problems and standards, and communication techniques within science.
Keller, E. F., 2001. Gender and Science: An Update, in Wyer, M., Barbercheck, M., Geisman, D. Ozturk, H. O., and Wayne, M. Routledge (eds.): Women, Science and Technology, available pdf.
- Week 6: Framing of science within the public realm; science/environmental journalism, editorial/blog:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Dietz, T., 2013. Bringing values and deliberation to science communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(Supplement 3), 14081-14087.
Antonio, R. J., & Brulle, R. J. (2011). The unbearable lightness of politics: Climate change denial and political polarization. The Sociological Quarterly, 52(2), 195-202.
Mann, C., 2014. How to Talk About Climate Change So People Will Listen. The Atlantic, August 13, 2014. Available here.
Additional Reading:
McCright, Aaron M. and Riley E. Dunlap. 2010. “Anti-Reflexivity: The American Conservative Movements Success in Undermining Climate Science and Policy. Theory, Culture and Society. 27(2/3), 100–133.
McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E., 2011. Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States. Global Environmental Change, 21(4), 1163-1172.
Manaster, Joanne (2014) Satirists As a Source of Science News, Scientific American blog August 29, 2014. Available here.
- Week 7: Failed Warnings or the Failure to Warn:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Diamond, J., 2003. The Last Americans. Harper’s Magazine, 45. Available here and as local pdf.
Ehrlich, P. R., and Ehrlich, A. H., 2009. The population bomb revisited. The electronic journal of sustainable development, 1(3), 63-71. Available here; pdf.
Nafeez Ahmed, 2014. Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'? Earth Insight hosted by The Guardian. Available here. See also: Q&A: when a theoretical article is misinterpreted.
Additional Reading:
Ehrlich, P., 1970. The population bomb. New York Times, 47.
Diamond, J., 2005. Collapse: How societies choose to succeed or fail. London: Allen Lane.
- Week 8: Science and Policy and Decision Making:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
David Cash, William Clark, Frank Alcock, Nancy Dickson, Noelle Eckley and Jill Jäger, 2002. Salience, Credibility, Legitimacy and Boundaries: Linking Research, Assessment and Decision Making. KSG Working Papers Series RWP02-046. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=372280 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.372280.
Collins, H., 2014. Rejecting knowledge claims inside and outside science. Sage Journal, Published online before print June 12, 2014, doi: 10.1177/0306312714536011. See abstract. Full article, pdf
Additional Reading:
Oreske, N. and Conway, E. M., 2010. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming Bloomsbury Press, New York.
Donald, A., 2014. Comments on “Are We All Scientific Experts Now?”, by Harry Collins. See the article
NBBooks, 2014. The Higgs boson and the purpose of a republic. Read the blog or access the pdf.
Krugman, P., 2014. Beliefs, Facts and Money — Conservative Delusions About Inflation. New York Times, July 6, 2014. Read the article.
Lindberg, E., 2014. The Krugman Function. Originally published by Transition Milwaukee. See http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-10-17/the-krugman-function.
- Week 9: Science and collapse in poetry, plays:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Binswanger, H. C., 1998. The Challenge of Faust. Science, 281(5377), 640-641, DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5377.640 html.
Oreskes, N. and Conway, 2014. The Collapse of the Western Culture.
Additional Reading:
Heller, P., 2012. The Dog Stars, a dystopian short novel. Alfred A. Knopf, Random House, Inc. New York. See the review by Alan Cheuse.
London, J., 1908. To Build a Fire. http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html.
- Week 10: Visual rhetoric; the power of metaphor:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Somerville, R. C., 2014. Is learning about climate change like having a colonoscopy? Earth's Future, 2(2), 119-121. See http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1002/2013EF000169/. Sommerville is fond of the medical analogy for climate change- here he looks at new research that finds people resist getting tested if they have not considered the risks and ways to reduce them first.
Unger, Henry, 2014. Presentation and Representation in Escher's Lithographs: The Logic and Aesthetics of Pictorial Nonsense. Tel Aviv University, Interdisciplinary Program.PDF.10/25/14.Available at: http://arts-old.tau.ac.il/departments/images/stories/journals/arthistory/Assaph4/11unger.pdf.
Martinez-Conde, Susana, 2014. Dali Masterpieces Were Inspired by Scientific American. Illusion Chasers. Scientific American. June 17, 2014. Available at: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/illusion-chasers/2014/06/17/dali-sciam/.
Additional Reading:
St. Clair, R. N., 2000: Visual Metaphor, Cultural Knowledge, and the New Rhetoric. In Reyhner, J., Martin, J., Lockard, L., and Gilbert, W. S. (eds.) Learn in Beauty: Indigenous Education for a New Century, 85-101. Northern Arizona University, Flgastaff. Available at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/jar/LIB/LIB8.html.
Changing Course: "Human intervention halted the natural land building process of Mississippi Delta." Available at: http://changingcourse.us/at-issue/the-problem/.
Kurt Godel (looking for a scholarly article on "Incompleteness Theory"): I believe Godel's "Incompleteness Theory" is relevant to our study, but I am not exactly able to explain it. John Von Neumann: "Kurt Gödel's achievement in modern logic is singular and monumental – indeed it is more than a monument, it is a landmark which will remain visible far in space and time. ... The subject of logic has certainly completely changed its nature and possibilities with Gödel's achievement." See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del
Liar Paradox: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar_paradox.
The Hollow-face Illusion: See http://viz.cwrl.utexas.edu/content/hollow-face-illusion-why-charlie-chaplin-can-still-scare-us.
Optical Illusions and Visual Rhetoric on pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/450219293970085877/
- Week 11: Cli Fi: books and films:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Mc Carthy, C., 2007. The Road. Random House.
Itäranta, E., 2014. Memory of Water — Knowledge is Power. Harper Collins Publisher.
Movie: The Road: An epic post-apocalyptic tale of the survival of a father and his young son as they journey across a barren America that was destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm.
Movie: The Day After Tomorrow.
Additional Reading:
Discussion: The power of Climate Change Fiction. See http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/07/29/will-fiction-influence-how-we-react-to-climate-change/science-fiction-reflects-our-anxieties. A summary is available here.
See the Cli-Fi movie award information here.
Movie: Independence Day
Play: Newman, H., 2014. Dry Times (pdf).
- Week 12: Risk, the fate of future generations, decisions in society:
Essential Readings/Viewings:
Klinke, A., & Renn, O. (2002). A New Approach to Risk Evaluation and Management: Risk‐Based, Precaution‐Based, and Discourse‐Based Strategies. Risk analysis, 22(6), 1071-1094. Additional Reading:
Keller, C., Bostrom, A., Kuttschreuter, M., Savadori, L., Spence, A., & White, M. (2012). Bringing appraisal theory to environmental risk perception: a review of conceptual approaches of the past 40 years and suggestions for future research. Journal of risk research, 15(3), 237-256.
Renn, O., & Schweizer, P. J. (2009). Inclusive risk governance: concepts and application to environmental policy making. Environmental Policy and Governance, 19(3), 174-185.
See http://www.ejcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/coc_execsum.pdf. This short report has a perspective on climate justice.
- Week 13:
- Week 14: THANKSGIVING, NO CLASS:
- Week 15: Student Workshop