Prematurity in Scientific Discovery: On Resistance and Neglect

Table of contents

• Prematurity in Scientific Discovery *
• Title Page *
• Contents *
• Figures xi
• Tables xi
• Preface xiii
• Acknowledgments xvii
• Contributors xix
• Part One - Introduction *
• Chapter One - A Background to Prematurity and Resistance to “discovery” 3
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Two - Prematurity in Scientific Discovery 22
• Bibliography *
• Part Two - Observer and Participant Accounts *
• Chapter Three - Prematurity, Nuclear Fission, and the Transuranium Actinide Elements 37
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Four - A Personal Perspective 46
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Five - The Timeliness of the Discoveries of the Three Modes of Gene Transfer in Bacteria 59
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Six - Forgetting and Neglect in Science 70
• Bibliography *
• Part Three - Historical Perspectives *
• Section A - Relatively Unproblematic Examples *
• Chapter Seven - Prematurity and Delay in the Prevention of Scurvy 87
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Eight - Prematurity and Resistance to Discovery in the Earth Sciences 92
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Nine - Implications of Their Reception for the Concept of Scientific Prematurity 109
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Ten - Interdisciplinary Dissonance and Prematurity Ida Noddack's Suggestion of Nuclear Fission 124
• Bibliography *
• Section B - Disputable Cases *
• Chapter Eleven - How Premature? 151
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Twelve - Prematurity and the Dynamics of Scientific Change 164
• Bibliography 174
• Chapter Thirteen - Premature Discovery or Stillborn Theory? 175
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Fourteen - Possible Examples of Prematurity in Human Genetics 200
• Bibliography *
• Part Four - Natural Selection and Evolution from the Perspective of Prematurity *
• Chapter Fifteen - The Prematurity of Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection 213
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Sixteen - Prematurity, Evolutionary Biology, and the Historical Sciences 239
• Bibliography *
• Part Five - Perspectives from the Vantage Point of the Social Sciences *
• Chapter Seventeen - The Prematurity of “prematurity” in Political Science 253
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Eighteen - The Impact and Fate of Gunther Stent's Prematurity Thesis 260
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Nineteen - Premature Discovery is Failure of Intersection Among Social Worlds 280
• Bibliography 290
• Part Six - Philosophical Perspectives *
• Chapter Twenty - Fleck, Kuhn, and Stent Loose Reflections on the Notion of Prematurity 295
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Twenty-One - The Concept of Prematurity and the Philosophy of Science 306
• Bibliography *
• Part Seven - Closing Considerations *
• Chapter Twenty-Two - Why Was Stent's Notion of Prematurity Itself So Premature? 329
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Twenty-Three - Reflections on Hull's Remarks 342
• Bibliography *
• Chapter Twenty-Four - Comments 346
• Chapter Twenty-Five - In Defense of Prematurity in Scientific Discovery 354
• Bibliography *
• Index 367

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