| Description |
xxviii, 154 pages ; 22 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction: Election day 2016 -- Our free market scientists -- Republic Inc. -- Genes and machines -- The machinist ethos -- Sciences of zero tolerance -- Empire of light -- Conclusion: Reading social science again. |
| Summary |
"Popular culture is saturated with claims to a science of human life. Demographics are said to predict how you'll vote; chemicals in your brain who you'll date; game-like scenarios how you'll spend your money; and genes what you'll think. This book explores this flood of scientism as it has spread in the last fifty years into almost all facets of daily existence. You'll discover how popular pseudoscience has radically changed the world we live in-in spheres as different as dating, economics, politics, and artificial intelligence. The abuse of popular scientific authority has had catastrophic consequences, contributing to the 2008 financial crisis; the failure to predict the rise of Donald Trump; increased tensions between poor communities and the police; and the side lining of non-scientific forms of knowledge and wisdom. But you also will learn a way out of the superstition and ideology of scientism. This book introduces readers to a movement called the "hermeneutic" or interpretive approach that promises to free ordinary people from the tyranny of pseudoscience. An interpretive approach to human life offers a way to become a better reader of both the many claims to science around you as well as the cultural spaces you inhabit and help create"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Subject |
Social sciences -- Study and teaching -- United States.
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Scientism.
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Pseudoscience -- Social aspects -- United States.
|
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Scientism. (OCoLC)fst01108891
|
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Social sciences -- Study and teaching. (OCoLC)fst01123000
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United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
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| Other Form: |
Online version: Blakely, Jason. We built reality New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017] 9780190087401 (DLC) 019053612 |
| ISBN |
9780190087371 hardcover |
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0190087374 hardcover |
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9780190087388 paperback |
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0190087382 paperback |
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9780190087401 electronic publication |
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9780190087395 electronic book |
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9780190087418 electronic book |
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