Prometheus Bedeviled: Science and the Contradictions of Contemporary Culture

A self-proclaimed socialist and ""unabashed Whig,"" Rutgers mathematician Levitt (Higher Superstition) believes that history is ""a march of progress, leading steadily to a more enlightened social order and to an increasingly accurate grasp of the principles underlying the natural world."" Here, he analyzes the role that science plays in American society. Taking particular aim at postmodernists and proponents of ""science studies""--who, he claims, believe that science offers no more insight than any other belief system--Levitt attempts to assert the primacy and value of the scientific method. While he articulates superbly the importance of science and makes critical distinctions between science and pseudoscience, especially in chapters focused on health and journalism, his attack on postmodernism falls short of the mark because of his overblown style and his refusal to present more than a caricature of his intellectual opponents (postmodernism ""seems to provoke its adherents to the most galling kind of snobbery--obnoxious, self-infatuated, and comically hierophantic""). Nonetheless, there is a great deal of thoughtful material here addressing the tension between democratic principles and a scientific worldview. In the end, however, Levitt provides many more questions than answers. (July)