Ministero della Pubbliea Istruzione. The second volume also contains a seven- age (2 columns per page) index of names for handy reference. Currently, Paalani is working an a further volume to include letters to Cannizzara written during the period 18691872.
George B. Kauffman California State University, Fresno Fresno, CA 93740
Science and Anti-Science Gerald Holton. Haward University Press: Cambridge. MA, 1993. x + 203 pp. 14.9 x 22.8 cm. $24.95. Thenature ofthe scientific enterprise and the dangers inherent in today's anti-science attitudes, topics frequently discussed both in articles and editorials in this Journal, are dealt with in a masterly manner by Gerald Holton, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Professor of History of Science a t Harvard University, in his latest book. The questions-What is goad science? What goal- if any-is the proper end of all scientific activity? What legitimating authority may scientists claim? Haw serious a threat are anti-science movements?-are far from new, but because Holton thinks that every era must offer its own responses, he answers them not in the abstract but in light of specific 20th-century scientific and political controversies, placed in the context of their historical roots. Using the case-study method and the concept of scientific themata pioneered in his Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein IHarvard, 19731, Holton shows how the 19th century empiricist view of science, as exemplified by the writings of Ernst Mach and the Vienna Circle far an International Eneyclopedia of Unified Science, influenced the thought of such 20th-century physicists, biologists, psychologists, and intellectuals as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Philipp Frank, Jacques Loeb, William James, B. Skinner, Percy W. Bridgrnan, and W. Quine. Because the two standard models for the pursuit ofresearch-"basic," identified with Isaac Newton, and "applied," identified with Francis Bacon-are no longer adequate for contemporary needs, Holton devotes an entire chapter to a third approach, still struggling to come into omminenee. the "Jeffersonian research oramam. which nlaces the center of research in a n area of basic scientific imo,~ ranre t l w t Iwa ;at the l m n ofn sorml pmhlem." He explore* the f~rd herwcen Thwnas JrfYersm, whu v~twcdhimscltprirn~nlync a student of the sciences, philosopher, educator, and planter and who did not permit even on his gravestone any reference to his presidency or his political achievements, and the U. S. Congress concerning the proper form of government sponsorship of research. Since World War 11, views that science is either self-destructive iOswald Spengler) or disruptive of the social equilibrium (Vaclav Havel) have become increasingly prominent. In the penultimate chapter of his six-chapter book Holtan considers the first conflietthat between the view that the sciences are subject to eventual decay and the view that the separate sciences will merge into one coherent theory of all natural phenomena. In his final chapter he scrutinizes the second eanflict-the more public battle between scientists and critics of "establishment science" who champion "alternative" or "antiscience" viewpoints, e. g., creationists, "New Age healers," astrologers, psychics, etc. This book, in which Holton's profound knowledge of history and humanistic understanding of contemporary science are everywhere evident, will be of interest to practicing scientists, science scholars, educators, and policymakers; and anyone seeking to understand the doubts about and challenges to the role of science in today's culture.
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George B. Kauffman CaliforniaState University, Fresno Fresno, CA 93740
Volume 71
Number 10 October 1994
A263
