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'Closeminded Science' Site
Science Heretics' Bookshelf
Refs on Critical Investigation of Science
THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION, W. Beveridge 1950
(amazon)
An excellent little book, a must-have for the heretic
library. Most is on the doing of science, but unlike others, Beveridge
directs lots of critical apprasial at his own profession. See chapter IX.
DIFFICULTIES, the sections on
resistance to new ideas and opposition to
discoveries. Also, under VII. REASON, words about hazards of overuse of
reason. There are whole chapters about imagination and about intuition
(both topics critical for the generation of new ideas.) For those needing
evidence that science isn't airtight, controlled, and mundane, there is a
collection of stories behind discoveries where chance played a large role.
HIDDEN HISTORIES OF SCIENCE R. Silvers, ed. 1995
(amazon)
An excellent and fascinating collection of critical articles by S.J.Gould,
Oliver Sacks, and others. I particularly recommend Sacks'
SCOTOMA: FORGETTING
AND NEGLECT IN SCIENCE. This is the type of book that you'll want
to buy several copies so you can loan it out to friends without
losing your own.
The cover blurb:
Johathan Miller, Oliver Sacks, and Daniel Kevles show how and why some
discoveries and insights emerge with great promise, only to be
discarded or forgotten, then re-emerge as important years later.
Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Jould suggest deep and largely
unacknowledged distortions in the way scientists and popularizers alike
conceive the structure of the world and its natural history.
SCIENTIFIC LITERACY AND THE MYTH OF THE SCIENTIFIC
METHOD
Henry H. Bauer, 1994, U. of Illinois Press
ISBN 0-252-06436-4 (amazon)
Suspect something's wrong with conventional science? Then don't miss
this one! Dr. Bauer (Chemistry, VPI/VSU) hits the bullseye on myths
believed by the public and by scientists themselves. In Bauer's world
the Filter, rather than Scientific method, rules all. "Science begins by
chance and caprice, at the frontier, with hardly a shadow of the
scientific method in evidence; and then it proceeds to be sieved,
tested, and modified until it appears in the textbooks, whose tried and
refined content can be explained so simply (albiet fallaciously) as
resulting from application of the [scientific] method."
Chapter titles: Scientific Literacy, The So-called Scientific Method,
How Science Really Works, Other Fables About Science, Imperfections
of the Filter, Consequences of Misconception, In Praise of Science.
You'll want to buy two, leaving one copy free to push on your
science-worshipping friends!
"The conventional wisdom is blind to its own inadequacy, to the fact
that, sooner or later, it will be found to be wrong in one way or
another."
"...that science has adopted new ideas in no way demonstrates that
the adoption of new ideas is somehow natural to science. Indeed,
to assert that science is open to new things is to fly in the face
of the evidence..."
"Science might be better served when some scientists generate novel
ideas while others carp at everything new, than if all scientists
could somehow become disinterestedly skeptical."
THE CONSCIOUS UNIVERSE Dr. Dean Radin
AMAZON BUY
An excellent overview of current evidence for psi. Also quite a bit about
the psychology effects encountered when researchers try to publish
evidence for unorthodox and unpopular ideas.
DARWIN'S CREATION MYTH, by Alexander Mebane
BUY FROM SOURCEBOOK PROJ
A critical examination of Darwinism, and how heretics who question
mainstream biology are treated. (no, not written by a creationist!)
DEVIANT SCIENCE The Case of Parapsychology
by James McClenon
AMAZON BUY
One of the cover blurbs:
"James McClenon has written a book which could become a classic, not
only to scholars of parapsychology, but also within the field of
sociology. It appears to be the first text to combine two sociological
traditions -the sociology of science and the sociology of deviant
behavior- into a coherent theoretical model as applied to
parapsychology... McClenon takes full advantage of the powerful
participant-observer methodoly in sociology to add a richness of detail
and color to his observations far surpassing those of other 'outside'
observers of psi research. McClenon's perspective is broad, generous, and
significant, in my opinoin, to the extent that it should be required
reading for anyone working in parapsychology or related disciplines."
FORBIDDEN SCIENCE, Suppressed research that could change our lives
by Richard Milton
Fourth Estate Ltd, London, 1995
(Also published in the US as "ALTERNATIVE SCIENCE")
AMAZON BUY
An intelligent, in-depth look at the hidden psychology which creates
scientific censorship and 'taboo' fields of research and invention.
This book is a treasure-trove of historical and contemporary examples;
it covers the Wright Brothers, Cold Fusion, parapsychology, Velikovski,
N-rays, and touches on many, many others. Something in modern science
needs serious repair, and Milton points out the source of the
malfunction in no uncertain terms. It's referenced throughout, so one
may look up the original evidence. Large bibliography too.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF IGNORANCE
Edited by: Ronald Duncan, Miranda Weston-Smith
(c)1977 Pergamon Press
AMAZON BUY
Everything you ever wanted to know about the unknown from scientists'
viewpoint.
SEVEN EXPERIMENTS THAT COULD CHANGE THE WORLD,
A do-it yourself guide to revolutionary science
by Rupert Sheldrake
Riverhead Books, NY 1995
AMAZON BUY
Why not *continuously measure* the physical constants, rather than
assume they are constant? What if scientists' expectations have
imposed serious biases on basic physics experiments? Are amputee's
"phantom limbs" real? ... This book is excellent, with disturbing
reevaluation of the fundamental assumptions behind modern science, and a
hard, clear look at both the myths of mainstream science and at the way
contemporary science is REALLY carried out.
COSMIC PLASMAS, by Hannes Aflven
AMAZON BUY
Dr. Aflven made himself a heretic/outcast by rejecting the Big Bang
theory. Yet his exploration of plasma physics laid the foundation of
quite a bit of modern understanding. For a look at some history of
mainstream response to Alfven's work, see:
"Alfven's Programme in Solar System Physics", by Stephen G. Brush,
IEEE Transactions of Plasma Science, Vol 20, No 6, December 1992.
CONFRONTING THE EXPERTS, B. Martin, ed. 1996 Albany State U. Press
AMAZON BUY
Tales of intellectual suppression, individuals going up against the
orthodoxy.
SCIENCE IS A SACRED COW, Anthony Standen 1950
AMAZON
BUY
From the title you might expect this to be a Creationist
diatribe or crackpot screed. Instead it's a thoughtful critique written
by a professional chemist with degrees from Oxford and MIT. I've always
thought that Science should be policing itself far more than it does;
catching its own incidences of hubris, puncturing it's own inflated ego,
etc. Well, here's a scientist doing exactly that. He lets his own
profession have it, with both barrels (doing it with good humor mixed with
scathing honesty and clear vision of his profession's hidden foibles.)
This book should be world famous. From it's contents, I can see why it's
not popular or well known in science... which demonstrates that the
problems pointed out by the author have still not been fixed.
LIFTING THE VEIL: The Feminine Face of Science, Dr. L.J.
Shepherd
AMAZON BUY
THE SOURCEBOOK PROJECT FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE
AMAZON BUY
Compiled by WR Corliss, this 15-volume set comprises a catalog
of anomalies gleaned from major science journals. A must-have
item for serious students of the Unknown. For those who don't
want the full encyclopedia set, try his "sampler",
SCIENCE FRONTIERS,
a very large paperback full of many hundreds of anomaly reports covering all fields of science.
http://www.science-frontiers.com/sourcebk.htm
THE BIOSPHERE BELOW
AMAZON BUY
Heretical biology, impossible bacteria from deep drillcores
The Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact
AMAZON BUY
Ludwick Fleck
"Should the history of science be rated X?" Stephen G. Brush, SCIENCE,
(183) 1974 pp1164-1172
"Resistance by scientists", Bernard Barber, SCIENCE (134), 1961 pp596-602
Speculations in Science and Technology (journal)
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