ABSTRACT

This volume explores how the scientific method enters and determines the dominant methodologies of various modern academic disciplines. It highlights the ways in which practitioners from different disciplinary backgrounds –– the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences –– engage with the scientific method in their own disciplines.

The book maps the discourse (within each of the disciplines) that critiques the scientific method, from different social locations, in order to argue for more complex and nuanced approaches in methodology. It also investigates the connections between the method and the structures of power and domination which exist within these disciplines. In the process, it offers a new way of thinking about the philosophy of the scientific method.

Part of the Science and Technology Studies series, this volume is the first of its kind in the South Asian context to debate scientific methods and address questions by scholars based in the global south. It will be useful to students and practitioners of science, humanities, social sciences, philosophy of science, and philosophy of social science. Research scholars from these disciplines, especially those engaging in interdisciplinary research, will also benefit from this volume.

part I|66 pages

Shifts within the Silo: Humanities

part |64 pages

Introduction to Part I

chapter 2|22 pages

‘If Not Precisely a Science'

The Provocations of Literary Studies

chapter 3|20 pages

Philosophy and Method

part II|70 pages

Shifts within the Silo: Natural Sciences

part |68 pages

Introduction to Part II

chapter 4|18 pages

The Methods of Mathematics

chapter 5|15 pages

Questions of Method

The Philosophy and Practice of Modern Human Genetics

chapter 6|17 pages

Chemistry, Method, Science, and Society

A Conversation

chapter 7|16 pages

‘Between Clearing and Concealment'

Knowledge-making in Physics

part III|154 pages

Shifts within the Silo: Social Sciences

part |152 pages

Introduction to Part III

chapter 8|22 pages

Decolonising Method

Where Do We Stand in Political Studies?

chapter 9|21 pages

Betwixt and Between?

Anthropology's Engagement with the Sciences and Humanities

chapter 10|19 pages

Economics, Feminist Economics, and Women's Studies

Methodological Orientations and Disciplinary Boundaries

chapter 11|21 pages

Method, Object, and Praxis

Marx and the Historians of Science

chapter 12|18 pages

Psychology in India

Knowledge, Method, Nation

chapter 13|16 pages

Geography in India

Gendered Concerns and Methodological Issues 1

chapter 14|19 pages

Beyond the Postcolonial

Speculations on the Indian Contemporary

chapter 15|14 pages

Towards New Ecologies of Method

A Speculative Afterword