Borrowed Knowledge: Chaos Theory and the Challenge of Learning Across Disciplines (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780226429786)

What happens to scientific knowledge when researchers outside the natural sciences bring elements of the latest trend across disciplinary boundaries for their own purposes? Researchers in fields from anthropology to family therapy and traffic planning employ the concepts, methods, and results of chaos theory to harness the disciplinary prestige of the natural sciences, to motivate methodological change or conceptual reorganization within their home discipline, and to justify public policies and aesthetic judgments.
Using the recent explosion in the use (and abuse) of chaos theory, Borrowed Knowledge and the Challenge of Learning across Disciplines examines the relationship between science and other disciplines as well as the place of scientific knowledge within our broader culture. Stephen H. Kellert's detailed investigation of the myriad uses of chaos theory reveals serious problems that can arise in the interchange between science and other knowledge-making pursuits, as well as opportunities for constructive interchange. By engaging with recent debates about interdisciplinary research, Kellert contributes a theoretical vocabulary and a set of critical frameworks for the rigorous examination of borrowing.

Author: Stephen H. Kellert
ISBN-10: 0226429784
ISBN-13: 9780226429786
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 11/01/2008
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.21lbs
Size: 9.31h x 6.44w x 0.92d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2009