Our war on ourselves
Subtitle: rethinking science, technology, and economic growth
By: Willem H. Vanderburg
Publisher: University of Toronto Press; University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Toronto
Language: eng
Number of pages: 385
ISBN-13: 9781442644380; 9781442612617
Subjects: Sociological aspects; Decision making; Social aspects; Science; Prise de décision; Economic development; Aspect social; Sciences; Technologie; Technology; Développement économique; Symbolism; Symbolisme; Aspect sociologique
Description: "Our approach to knowing and doing is based on delegating physical phenomena to physicists, biological phenomena to biologists, social phenomena to sociologists, economic phenomena to economists, and so on. This approach to knowledge and practice works very well when one category of phenomena dominates (as in mechanical and technical systems), but does not work when many categories of phenomena make significant contributions (as in the biological and cultural spheres). As a result, our civilization succeeds in its scientific and technical endeavours yet fails in dealing with communities and ecosystems.

Following his groundbreaking Labyrinth of Technology and Living in the Labyrinth of Technology, Willem H. Vanderburg's Our War on Ourselves explores the type of war we have unleashed on our lives by emphasizing discipline-based processes. The work also illuminates how we can achieve a more balanced, livable, and sustainable future by combining technical and cultural perspectives in our educational and institutional settings."--pub. desc.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [351]-344) and index.
Table of contents: title: A Civilization of non-sense? ; Failure to Connect the Dots? ; Science as Biased Knowing ; Technology as Biased Doing ; Opposing Biases ; Some Consequences ; Where Do We Go From Here? ; How We Shall Proceed; title: Chapter 1: Symbolization: Getting in touch with ourselves and the world ; Living a Life ; Babies Getting in Touch with Themselves and the World ; Words as Signs ; Language and Order ; The Self and Cultural Order ; The True and the Real ; Myths and the True ; The True, the Other, and Myself; title: Chapter 2: Desymbolization: Losing touch with ourselves and the world ; Undermining Symbolization ; Television as an Introduction to What Is Real ; Computers as the Playground of What Is Real ; High School Science as the Imagination of What Is Real ; The Emerging Order of What Is Real; title: Chapter 3: Colliding orders and the triumph of the real ; Re-engineering a Symbolic Species ; The Emerging Technological Order ; A Growing Dependence on Matter and Energy ; The Emerging Economic Order ; Desymbolizing the Cultural Order ; Making the Collision Liveable; title: Chapter 4: The triumph of the technical order over cultural orders ; Symbolization and Traditions ; Desymbolization and Tradition-Based Knowing and Doing ; Rationality within Culture ; Technique within Culture ; The Economy within the Technical Order ; Possessed by New Myths ; The University as a Bridgehead?; title: Chapter 5: Desymbolization and resymbolization ; Is Resymbolization Possible? ; A Starting Point ; Resymbolizing Economics ; Resymbolizing the Social Sciences ; Resymbolizing Engineering ; Resymbolizing Management ; Resymbolizing Medicine ; Resymbolizing Legal Education ; Community Colleges.