Shaping Science with Rhetoric: The Cases of Dobzhansky, Schrodinger, and Wilson

by Leah Ceccarelli

How do scientists persuade colleagues from diverse fields to cross the disciplinary divide, risking their careers in new interdisciplinary research programs? Why do some attempts to inspire such research win widespread acclaim and support, while others do not?

In Shaping Science with Rhetoric, Leah Ceccarelli addresses such questions through close readings of three scientific monographs in their historical contexts—Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937), which inspired the "modern synthesis" of evolutionary biology; Erwin Schrödinger's What Is Life? (1944), which catalyzed the field of molecular biology; and Edward O. Wilson's Consilience (1998), a so far not entirely successful attempt to unite the social and biological sciences. She examines the rhetorical strategies used in each book and evaluates which worked best, based on the reviews and scientific papers that followed in their wake.

Ceccarelli's work will be important for anyone interested in how interdisciplinary fields are formed, from historians and rhetoricians of science to scientists themselves.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

About the author

Leah Ceccarelli, Professor, is a rhetorical critic and theorist. Her research focuses on interdisciplinary and public discourse about science. She also explores metacritical issues surrounding rhetorical inquiry as a mode of research. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in American Public Address, Public Debate, Rhetorical Criticism, Classical Rhetoric, and Rhetoric of Science. She directs the UW Science, Technology, and Society Studies Graduate Certificate program. She serves on the editorial boards of Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and Philosophy & Rhetoric, and is Co-Editor of Transdisciplinary Rhetoric (a book series sponsored by the Rhetoric Society of America and Penn State University Press).

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to give this 3.5 stars because when I am rating science studies books I'm not evaluating them on their intrinsic quality (if such a thing exists), or their scholarly rigor, but on their usefulness to my own work.

On that scale, it's useful and insightful, but somewhat limited.