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Life - after Canguilhem

Article Abstract:

Georges Canguilhem's history of science identified a shift in the epistemology of biology after the revolution in molecular biology during the 1950s and 1960s, and claimed that the definition of life as organization lost ground to a new conception, life as information. However, although this conception is not totally discredited in modern times, its limits are apparent, as the accumulation of genomic information has not led to immediate biological insight.

Analysis, Criticism and interpretation, Works, Genomics, Canguilhem, Georges

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Nature

Article Abstract:

Studies reveal that it is often argued that the boundaries between culture and nature are dissolving, that the idea of an autonomous nature, separated and divorced from culture, is no longer tenable. A number of variants on this argument are discussed, one of which is the view that humans have reached the end of nature, while another is the proposition that nature refers to a chain of being to which human beings and everything else belongs.

Comparative analysis, Ethnology, Cultural anthropology

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The post-positivist dispute in social studies of science and its bearing on social theory

Article Abstract:

Positivism believed in the ultimate unification of scientific method, a belief that is universally considered defunct by both scientists and social critics. Both are now considering the possibility, held out by post-positivism, in a hermeneutical unity of scientific method. A sociological study of science in the light of post-positivist theories of hermeneutic unity of method are elaborated.

History, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Logical positivism

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