2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

HSS Abstracts
Dorothy Ross Johns Hopkins University
The Social Science Disciplines in Europe and the U.S.:
Enlarging the Historical Lens
This paper attempts a critical overview of the development of the disciplines
that are variously denominated “human,” “social,” and “behavioral” sciences,
from their formation in the late nineteenth century to the present in Europe
and the United States. I will focus on a number of key issues in that history
and its historiography: the notion of social science disciplinary formation as a
“project” the disputed location of the social sciences between science and the
humanities the interplay of national and cross-national influences the
construction of the social sciences as engineering sciences, particularly in the
U.S. the postwar, international renewal of the social science disciplinary project
and its threatened disintegration since 1970.
Michael Ruse University of Guelph
Was neo-Darwinism Darwinian?
The most influential idea in twentieth century American evolutionary biology
was Sewall Wright’s metaphor of an adaptive landscape. I argue that, apart from
being completely confused conceptually and having absolutely no basis in
empirical reality, this was a deeply non-Darwinian notion that appealed because
it could be used by those (the vast majority of evolutionists) who had no
mathematical ability. The metaphor’s roots lie in the work of Herbert Spencer,
which is no surprise for Spencer always had (and in many respects still has) far
more influence on American thought than anything penned by Charles Darwin.
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Steven␣ W. Ruskin University of Notre Dame
Private Science , Public Imagination, and the Ambitions of Empire:
Perceptions of John Herschel’s Cape Voyage, 1833-1838
John Herschel’s voyage to the Cape Colony (1833-38) was an event of considerable
interest for Britain. John sailed to the southern tip of Africa to observe the southern
heavens. His intention was that the voyage be a “private affair . . . a mere party of
pleasure.” But his scientific renown encouraged the public imagination to place
his journey in the same category as other imperial expeditions: for example, that
undertaken by Captain James Cook and Joseph Banks, and those in Africa of
Mungo Park and Richard Lander. Herschel, however, did not see his voyage in
this way he rejected government aid and any official status. Yet the image of
Herschel as an imperial scientist-explorer remained and his voyage was popularly