New Ways of Knowing: The Sciences, Society, and Reconstructive Knowledge

Front Cover
Rowman & Littlefield, 1987 - Philosophy - 293 pages
In this volume, physicists and social scientists challenge the bedrock of scientific thinking whose applications can prove destructive to existing social systems, and shift the debate to the need for a radical change of direction that would replace traditional "value-free" inquiry and research with a knowledge model that incorporates social responsibility, democratic principles, and comprehensive ethical standards. Presented in this book is a form of inquiry--reconstructive knowledge--concerned with the assumptions and practices of modern science and the politics of scientific discipline. Essays included are: (1) "Reconstruction and Its Knowledge Method" (Marcus Raskin); (2) "Idols of Modern Science and the Reconstruction of Knowledge" (Herbert Bernstein); (3) "Toward a Reconstructive Political Science" (Raskin, Bernstein); (4) "Exchanges on Reconstructive Knowledge" (Noam Chomsky, Raskin); (5) "Ending the Faustian Bargain (Raskin); (6) "The Human Meaning of the Information Revolution" (Michael Goldhaber); (7) "The Selling of Market Economics" (Edward Herman); (8) "Semiotic Boundaries and the Politics of Meaning: Modernity on Tour--A Village in Transition" (Susan Buck-Morss); (9) "Seizing Power/Grasping Truth" (Joseph Turner); and (10) "Conclusion: A Manifesto of Reconstructive Knowledge" (Raskin). The themes of the social construction of reality, the social sciences' ability to determine fates and fortunes, the linkage between the realms of knowledge generation and of political direction, and that economics as a discipline is a rule of human organization (not nature), are included. (KR)

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New Ways of Knowing: The Sciences, Society, and Reconstructive Knowledge
Marcus G. Raskin,Herbert J. Bernstein,Susan Buck-Morss
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About the author (1987)

Marcus Goodman Raskin was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 30, 1934. He studied politics at the University of Chicago and later graduated from the university's law school. After law school, he worked on the staff of Representative Robert W. Kastenmeier in Washington. Raskin was part of a group that wrote The Liberal Papers, a book of essays that examined the future of liberal politics. He joined the staff of McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy's national security adviser, in 1961. He was moved to the Bureau of the Budget in 1962. In 1963, Raskin and Richard J. Barnet started the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank that became a source of research about nuclear disarmament, the Vietnam War, economic inequality, civil rights, and national security. Raskin stepped down as director of the institute in 1978, but continued to write, fund-raise, and formulate ideas for social action. He co-wrote several books including Washington Plans an Aggressive War: A Documented Account of the United States Adventure in Indochina written with Richard J. Barnet and Ralph Stavins and The Four Freedoms Under Siege written with Robert Spero. He died from heart failure on December 24, 2017 at the age of 83.

Bibliographic information

TitleNew Ways of Knowing: The Sciences, Society, and Reconstructive Knowledge
G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
AuthorsMarcus G. Raskin, Herbert J. Bernstein, Susan Buck-Morss
EditorsMarcus G. Raskin, Susan Buck-Morss
PublisherRowman & Littlefield, 1987
ISBN0847674630, 9780847674633
Length293 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Philosophy / Epistemology
Reference / Questions & Answers
Science / General
Social Science / General
Social Science / Sociology / General
  
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