Shaping Science with Rhetoric: The Cases of Dobzhansky, Schrodinger, and Wilson (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226099071)

How do scientists persuade colleagues from diverse fields to cross the disciplinary divide, risking their careers in new interdisciplinary research programs? Why do some attempts to inspire such research win widespread acclaim and support, while others do not?

In Shaping Science with Rhetoric, Leah Ceccarelli addresses such questions through close readings of three scientific monographs in their historical contexts-Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937), which inspired the "modern synthesis" of evolutionary biology; Erwin Schringer's What Is Life? (1944), which catalyzed the field of molecular biology; and Edward O. Wilson's Consilience (1998), a so far not entirely successful attempt to unite the social and biological sciences. She examines the rhetorical strategies used in each book and evaluates which worked best, based on the reviews and scientific papers that followed in their wake.

Ceccarelli's work will be important for anyone interested in how interdisciplinary fields are formed, from historians and rhetoricians of science to scientists themselves.

Author: Leah Ceccarelli
ISBN-10: 0226099075
ISBN-13: 9780226099071
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 07/01/2001
Pages: 192
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 9.02h x 6.02w x 0.53d

Review Citation(s):
Scitech Book News 09/01/2001 pg. 65
Choice 12/01/2001 pg. 703