Science Studies During the Cold War and Beyond

EDITED BY ELENA ARONOVA & SIMONE TURCHETTI SCIENCE STUDIES DURING THE COLD WAR AND BEYOND Paradigms Defected PALGRAVE STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE HISTORY STUDIES PALGRAVE Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology Series Editors James Fleming Colby College South China , Maine , USA Roger Launius Washington, D.C. , USA Designed to bridge the gap between the history of science and the history of technology, this series publishes the best new work by promising and accomplished authors in both areas. In particular, it offers historical perspectives on issues of current and ongoing concern, provides international and global perspectives on scientifi c issues, and encourages productive communication between historians and practicing scientists. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14581 Elena Aronova • Simone Turchetti Editors Science Studies during the Cold War and Beyond Paradigms Defected Editors Elena Aronova Simone Turchetti University of California at Santa University of Manchester, Barbara, Santa Barbara , USA Manchester , UK Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology ISBN 978-1-137-57816-7 ISBN 978-1-137-55943-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55943-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953097 © The Editors and Authors 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Science+Business Media LLC New York In memory of John V. Pickstone who encouraged us to pursue this research project. PREF ACE This book was inspired by an international conference “Politics and Context of Science Studies during the Cold War and Beyond,” held at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg in Greifswald on March 22–24, 2012. The workshop’s organizer, Elena Aronova, was generously offered this oppor- tunity as a 2011–2012 fellow-in-residence at the Wissenschaftskolleg. Her work on the history of the studies of science in Cold War America and the Soviet Union motivated the aim of the workshop: to investigate a variety of national “science studies” projects across the East–West and Global North–South divides during the Cold War, as a counterbalance to the extant historiography of science studies that focuses almost exclusively on the discussions in the West (the USA and Western Europe). The response to the call for papers confi rmed what was obvious at the time: that almost everyone in the fi eld was interested in the fi eld’s origins, contexts, and politics, but it was hard to fi nd anyone who actually researched the subject the way historians of science research the history of other fi elds in the Cold War. The workshop thus became an incentive for many participants to dig into the archives, to survey the literature in a systematic fashion, and, in some cases, to refl ect on their own past. Indeed, several contributors have been directly or indirectly involved in the episodes they historicize in their chapters. The initial versions of the papers presented at the workshop gen- erated the discussion that continued further. The institutional support of the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg in Greifswald and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin allowed this project to evolve. With Simone Turchetti as a co-editor, we took the next step, making vii viii PREFACE additional selection of contributions to strengthen the book’s coherence around three parts: “Science Studies in the ‘West,’” “Studies of Science Behind the ‘Curtain,’” and “National Agendas of the Studies of Science Beyond the ‘Two Blocs.’” Elena Aronova would like to thank all the guests of the initial workshop and the keynote speaker, Naomi Oreskes, for their generous and stimulat- ing interventions, as well as for their enthusiastic response and support without which this project would never have materialized. A special word of gratitude is due to the Wissenschaftskolleg staff that contributed to making the initial workshop an important inspiration to pursue the project further. Simone Turchetti would like to thank Jonathan Harwood, Gianni Battimelli, Paul Forman, John Krige, Michael Worboys, Roy MacLeod, John Christie, and Pietro Corsi for exchanging their views during the com- pletion of his chapter. Turchetti’s research was funded by the European Research Council. Michal Kokowski would like to express his gratitude to the editors of the volume, Elena Aronova and Simone Turchetti, for their helpful comments, criticism, and editorial work. Kokowski also acknowledges Aronova for arousing his interest in the subject through her publica- tions. Lu Gao would like to acknowledge Zuoyue Wang who introduced her to Aronova and encouraged to pursue her research. Hans-Joachim Dahms thanks George Reisch for discussions in Greifswald, in Berlin, and on the internet. Thanks also for permission to cite from his unpublished articles! Dahms is also indebted to Aronova and Turchetti for discussions on his article. Ian James Kidd acknowledges Donald Gillies and Paul Hoyningen-Huene for helpful discussions, and the editors for their kind invitation to contribute to this volume and their helpful comments on ear- lier drafts. Kidd’s research was funded by an Addison Wheeler Fellowship. Sommer’s research was funded by the European Research Council and the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR). Vasen acknowledges the University of Quilmes and CONICET for institutional and fi nancial support and Adriana Feld and Judith Naidorf for enriching discussions on the paper. Elena Aronova Santa Barbara, CA, USA Simone Turchetti Manchester, UK CONTENTS 1 Introduction: Science Studies in East and West—Incommensurable Paradigms? 1 Elena Aronova and Simone Turchetti Part I Science Studies in the “West” 21 2 Telegrams and Paradigms: On Cold War Geopolitics and The Structure of Scientifi c Revolutions 23 George A. Reisch 3 “What’s So Great About Science?” Feyerabend on Science, Ideology, and the Cold War 55 Ian James Kidd 4 Looking for the Bad Teachers: The Radical Science Movement and Its Transnational History 77 Simone Turchetti 5 Thomas Kuhn’s Structure : An “Exemplary Document of the Cold War Era”? 103 Hans-Joachim Dahms ix x CONTENTS Part II Studies of Science Behind the “Curtain” 127 6 Blind Isolation: History of Science Behind the Iron Curtain 129 Gabor Pallo 7 The Science of Science ( naukoznawstwo ) in Poland: Defending and Removing the Past in the Cold War 149 Michał Kokowski 8 Scientists of the World, Unite! Radovan Richta’s Theory of Scientifi c and Technological Revolution 177 Vítězslav Sommer Part III National Agendas of the Studies of Science Beyond the “Two Blocs” 205 9 The Cold War, Political Neutrality, and Academic Boundaries: Imprints on the Origins and Early Development of Science Studies in Sweden 207 Aant Elzinga 10 What does a “National Science” Mean? Science Policy, Politics and Philosophy in Latin America 241 Federico Vasen 11 From Dialectics of Nature to STS: The Historical Evolution of Science Studies in China 267 Lu Gao Bibliography 289 Index 321 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Elena Aronova is an Assistant Professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara’s History Department. She has published a number of articles, which examine the ways in which ideas about science have become a sphere of Cold War competition, on both sides of the “Iron Curtain.” She also works on the history of environmental data collection during the Cold War, and the history of the evolu- tionary theory. In 2012–2015, she was a research scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. She received her Ph.D. at the University of California at San Diego, after a doctorate in Biology/History of Science from the Russian Academy of Science. Hans-Joachim Dahms is a (now retired) philosophy researcher, who studied at Göttingen and took his habilitation at the University of Osnabrück (Germany). His last position was at the Vienna Circle Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria). His main research interests are in the philosophy of science and its history as well as German and Austrian university history. He has also published on the Vienna Circle of logical positivism, Karl Popper’s critical rationalism, and the Frankfurt Schools of critical theory. He is working on a book on the Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity) in art, architecture, and philosophy, based mainly on archival sources. Aant Elzinga is Professor Emeritus of Theory of Science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. He combines the history and politics of science in the broader fi eld called science and technology studies (STS). In the 1990s, he was, for several years, President of the European Association for the Study of Science and technology (EASST). A noteworthy publication is Einstein ’ s Nobel Prize (2006). He is a member of editorial advisory boards of leading science studies journals as well as of The Polar Journal , a multidisciplinary social sciences and humanities publication on polar matters.

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