”Science Studies”: Cold War and the Politics of Science in the U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R., 1950S-1970S
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Studies of Science Before ”Science Studies”: Cold War and the Politics of Science in the U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R., 1950s-1970s. A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History (Science Studies) by Elena Aronova Committee in charge: Professor Naomi Oreskes, Co-Chair Professor Cathy Gere, Co-Chair Professor William Bechtel Professor Robert Edelman Professor Martha Lampland Professor Robert Westman 2012 Copyright Elena Aronova, 2012 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Elena Aronova is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Co-Chair Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2012 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page . iii TableofContents................................. iv Acknowledgements ................................ vii VitaandPublications .............................. x AbstractoftheDissertation . xiii Chapter 1 Introduction: The Cold War and its Legacy(ies) . 1 1.1 Cold War and the Politics of Science Studies: Some RemarksontheExistingHistoriography . 9 1.2 Theoretical Approach and Methodology: Cultural Production of Scientific Disciplines . 17 1.3 Chapter-by-Chapter Preview . 20 Chapter 2 UNESCO, “Scientific Humanism” and the Transformations of the Agenda for History of Science in the Aftermath of WWII and Beyond, 1940s-1960s . 31 2.1 Joseph Needham’s Scientific Humanism and his Vision of the Place of Science in the post-War World Organization 38 2.2 The “Evolutionary Humanism” of Julian Huxley . 44 2.3 Two “Scientific Humanists” at the Beginning of UNESCO 50 2.4 UNESCO’s “History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of Mankind” . 58 2.5 Conclusion to Chapter Two . 76 Chapter 3 Instituting a “Post-Marxian Basis for Liberalism” in the Age of Cold War: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and its Quest for“ScienceStudies,”1950-1975 . 80 3.1 The CCF’s “Ideology”: the “End of Ideology” in the Age of Cold War . 84 3.2 The CCF’s Methodology: Study Groups and the Seminar Program . 89 3.3 The “Minerva Debate”: Social and Political Implications of Big Science . 95 3.4 “Who Paid the Piper”: the CIA Connection and the Moral Crusade of the CCF in 1967 . 103 3.5 A Refurbished Intellectual Framework of the CCF in the 1970s: the Theory of Post-Industrial Society . 109 iv 3.6 The IACF’s Conferences on Science and Politics: an Institutional Rival with Science Studies. 112 3.7 Conclusion to Chapter Three . 120 Chapter 4 From “Scientific Humanism” to Asilomar: The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and its Programs in Biology in Human A↵airs, 1960-1975 . 126 4.1 JonasSalkandhisDreamInstitute . 129 4.2 Jacob Bronowski: a “Scientific Humanist” Par Excellence 141 4.3 Julian Huxley and his “Ideas-System” Group in Search ofanInstitutionalHome . 146 4.4 Jacob Bronowski and the “Department of Humane Studies” at the Salk Institute, 1962-1968 . 152 4.4.1 Integrating Science and the Humanities through Linguistics: Roman Jakobson and the “Language Studies” at the Salk Institute . 159 4.4.2 Integrating Science and the Humanities through Philosophy of Science: Karl Popper and the “Logic of Biology” . 170 4.5 Molecular Biology as a Unifying Framework: Expansion of the Scientific Programs at the Salk Institute, 1966-1968 176 4.6 Joseph Slater, the Congress for Cultural Freedom, and theNewAgendafortheSalkInstitute . 182 4.7 The Rise and Demise of the Council for Biology in Human A↵airs, 1969-1975 . 189 4.8 Conclusion to Chapter Four . 199 Chapter 5 In Search of the Soul in Science: The Hastings Center and its Quest for Philosophy of Science Relevant to Medical Ethics, 1976-1980 . 205 5.1 In the Wake of Kuhn: the Hastings Center’s Conferences “The Foundation of Ethics and its Relationship to Science,” 1976-1980 . 209 5.2 Medical Ethics as a Means of Epistemological Deliberation: Biology and Medicine as the New Object of Post-Kuhnian Philosophy of Science . 219 5.3 Medical Ethics as a Means of Democratic Deliberations: Political Agendas of Biomedical Ethics’ Epistemologies . 224 5.4 ConclusiontoChapterFive . 234 Chapter6 The Politics and Contexts of Soviet Science Studies (Naukovedenie): Soviet Philosophy of Science at the Crossroads240 v 6.1 Soviet Philosophy and the Studies of Science in the 1920s and 1930s . 246 6.2 TheColdWarandSovietPhilosophy . 252 6.3 Local Contexts and Politics of Naukovedenie: Bonifatij Kedrov and “Philosophical Turn” of the Institute for the HistoryofScienceandTechnology . 262 6.4 Geography of Reading: Staging Kuhn versus Popper in theSovietUnion ......................271 6.5 Conclusion to Chapter Six . 276 Chapter 7 Conclusion . 278 7.1 Big Science and “Big Science Studies” . 280 7.2 Challenges to a Universalist Ideal of Science . 283 7.3 The Cold War and its Legacies . 286 Chapter 8 Bibliography . 288 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For support, conversations and many useful suggestions I would like to thank many persons. I am especially grateful to the extraordinary community of scholars that forms the Science Studies Program at UCSD. Over the course of six years, first as a visiting scholar and then as a Ph.D. student, I found myself surrounded by inspiring teachers who encouraged me to reach across disciplinary boundaries, to pursue difficult questions, and to find my own voice to answer them. For all of their help, I would like to thank Cathy Gere, who read and reread an unthinkable number of early drafts always o↵ering right advice and cheerful encouragement, Naomi Oreskes, whose feedback always touched the essential points stimulating my evolving views on the history of Science Studies, Robert Westman for introducing me to that history, Robert Edelman for broadening my understanding of Russian and Soviet history, Charles Thorpe and Martha Lampland, for helping me to think about planning and free market in more theoretical terms than I tend to pursue in the dissertation, as well as other faculty and graduate students at UCSD. Among many colleagues and friends with whom di↵erent aspects of this work have been discussed, I would like to thank especially Anna Mayer, Mary Jo Nye, George Reisch, and Steven Shapin who have been exceptionally open and forthcoming. I thank all the sta↵ and faculty of the Salk Institute who devoted their time helping me understand their histories. I would like to extend a special thank you to Peter Salk and Darrell Salk for the permission to consult Jonas Salk papers. The small but inspiring community of Russian scholars and scholars of Russia at UCSD was a source of emotional support and intellectual nourishment always carried in a spirit of playfulness. I would like to thank Robert Edelman, vii Lev Manovich, Natalia Roudakova, and Tatiana Sizonenko for being wonderful colleagues and friends. Lev Manovich’s studio at the Visual Arts Department proved to be an inspiring place to think and write this dissertation up, in its final stage. My fellow graduate students at History Department have been a delightful group of colleagues over these years, and I thank Harun K¨u¸c¨uk, Robert Long, Minakshi Menon, Kristopher Nelson, Matthew Shindell and James Tracy for their encouragement, help, and friendship. I am especially grateful to Edward Swiderski for ongoing exchange and for o↵ering invaluable help with editing at the last moment. A final word of gratitude is for family. They crossed the Atlantic and then the continent with me as I have chased my curiosities, and they have done this with grace and patience. Their support, in di↵erent ways, helped me in an immeasurable way. Chapter 5, in full, is a reprint of the material as it appears in History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 2009. Elena Aronova. 2009. In Search of the Soul in Science: Medical Ethics’ Appropriation of Philosophy of Science in the 1970s, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 31: 5-34. The dissertation author was the only investigator and author of this paper. Chapter 6, in full, is a reprint of the material as it appears in Studies in East European Thought 2011. Elena Aronova. 2011. The Politics and Contexts of Soviet Science Studies (Naukovedenie): Soviet Philosophy of Science at the Crossroads, Studies in East European Thought 63/3: 175-202. The dissertation author was the only investigator and author of this paper. Chapter 3, in part, is a reprint of the material as it will appear in the forthcoming issue of Minerva 2012. Aronova, Elena. 2012. The Congress for Cultural Freedom, Minerva, and the Quest for Instituting “Science Studies” in the viii Age of Cold War, Minerva 50/3. The dissertation author was the only investigator and author of this paper. Material from Chapters 3 and 6, as well the Conclusion, in part, has been used in the paper ”Big Science and ’Big Science Studies’ in the Cold War America and the Soviet Union” submitted for publication. This paper is under review and it may appear in Nation and Knowledge. Science and Technology in the Global Cold War, eds. Naomi Oreskes and John Krige. The dissertation author was the only investigator and author of this paper. ix VITA 1991 M.S.inChemistry,MoscowStateUniversity,Moscow,Russia 1991-1996 Researcher, Laboratory of Gene Bioengineering, Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 1995-1998 Scientist, Laboratory of PCR-diagnostics, Clinical Center of DNA Research, the Russian Ministry of Public Health, Moscow, Russia 1996-1999 Doctoral Student, Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 1999-2006 Researcher (2006-present: Associate Researcher), Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 2003 KandidatNauk(Ph.D.)inBiology/HistoryofScience Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 2006-2007 Visiting Scientist, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego 2007, 2008 ResearchAssociate, ScrippsInstitutionofOceanography, San Diego 2007-2010 Teaching Assistant/Reader, University of California, San Diego 2011, 2012 Lecturer (Associate-In), History Department, University of California, San Diego 2012 Ph.D.