2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

HSS Abstracts
of simulation models. Such dynamical systems are conceptually closed and
computable systems. In contrast, natural ecosystems are open, self-modifying
systems. The self-modification of ecosystems leads to the continuous (on-line)
production of internal novelty and thus of new parameters. Ecosystems are
characterized by a history of system-environment interactions, in which order
may emerge from “noise” . Thus there are no grounds on which noise and (eco-
)system could be distinguished. Historicity and self-modification of ecosystems
make non-trivial predictions of future outcomes impossible. Concurrently, the
closed simulation models containing numerous parameters of convenience lose
reference to empirical reality and become mere “fitting machines” , which can be
adapted to any data set. Notwithstanding, the modeling process, as a learning and
communication process, can be a mode of coping with different types of complexity.
H
S
S
Caroline␣ C. Hannaway National Institutes of Health
NIH Scientists and International Understanding of the Spread of HIV
National Institutes of Health scientists initially perceived AIDS primarily as a
syndrome affecting gay men in the United States. But with the expansion of
groups at risk in American to include recent Haitian immigrants in 1982 and
the response in Haiti that this identification provoked, the NIH became drawn
into international investigation of the spread of HIV. A short-term NIH
investigation in Haiti was followed by a much larger and more influential
project to examine the spread of HIV in Zaire and to understand the
epidemiological and clinical differences of AIDS in different countries. This
Zaire project was carried out in cooperation with the Centers for Disease
Control and the Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium.
This paper will explore how NIH scientists began to perceive the international
dimensions of the AIDS epidemic and the initiatives that were taken to
investigate the implications of the global spread of the disease. As is often
characteristic of NIH research, international AIDS research at the NIH began
with personal initiative rather than a government mandated investigation. But
the nature of Project SIDA in Zaire was framed in part by Public Health Service
directives. The paper will contribute to the examination of the complexities of
undertaking AIDS research in the federal government and enlarge
understanding of the interaction of federal agencies on public health problems.
LeeAnn Hansen California State University Fullerton
Constructing a Public Psychology:
Karl Philipp Moritz and the Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde
In The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere Jürgen Habermas notes
93