Narrative Science
Reasoning, Representing and Knowing since 1800
Mary S Morgan editor Kim M Hajek editor Dominic J Berry editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:6th Oct '22
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£26.99(9781009001991)
The first systematic analysis of the ways scientists have used narrative in their research.
This collection is the outcome of a major European Research Council funded investigation into the role of narrative in science over the past two centuries. Drawing together a wide range of thought-provoking case studies, this landmark study revises our understanding of what science is and reveals the importance of narrative in how it works.Narrative Science examines the use of narrative in scientific research over the last two centuries. It brings together an international group of scholars who have engaged in intense collaboration to find and develop crucial cases of narrative in science. Motivated and coordinated by the Narrative Science project, funded by the European Research Council, this volume offers integrated and insightful essays examining cases that run the gamut from geology to psychology, chemistry, physics, botany, mathematics, epidemiology, and biological engineering. Taking in shipwrecks, human evolution, military intelligence, and mass extinctions, this landmark study revises our understanding of what science is, and the roles of narrative in scientists' work. This title is also available as Open Access.
'Through a mosaic of case studies from the natural and social sciences, this remarkable collection investigates the many ways in which scientists use narratives as modes and sites of sense-making, representation, and reasoning. The Narrative Science approach imaginatively reconfigures the relationship between philosophy, narratology and scientific practice, enriching each of these fields of inquiry as a result.' Chiara Ambrosio, University College London
'This rich collection makes a broad-ranging examination of scientific practices, revealing the ubiquitous presence and diverse functions of narratives. An important and illuminating emphasis is on the key role of narrative as a 'technology of sense-making'. This path-breaking volume will have far-reaching implications for science studies, with deep philosophical implications.' Hasok Chang, University of Cambridge
'Narrative Science is an important and original collection of essays which together evidence narrative's crucial epistemic role within science, and demonstrate the many ways in which narrative is involved in, sometimes integral to, the production of scientific knowledge.' Sarah Dillon, University of Cambridge
'Was science ever so austere and self-effacing as its defenders imply by praising it as 'data-driven'? The chapters of this important collection demonstrate the vital role of narrative not just in popular writing on science, but in creative research, pointing the way to a more encompassing historical philosophy of science.' Theodore M. Porter, UCLA
'Narrative Science eloquently parries dismissive, 'just-so' critiques of story-telling in science by demonstrating that scientists past and present have used narrative as a way of thinking: that is, a tool for making sense of the natural, human, and social worlds they study, and for creating new knowledge.' Anne Vila, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ISBN: 9781316519004
Dimensions: 234mm x 157mm x 30mm
Weight: 840g
498 pages