Tracing the language of science through time and across cultures, Scott Montgomery examines its character, evolution, and cultural origins, and shows the profound influence language has had on scientific thought, discovery, and progress. Drawing on examples from a range of sciences, he shows how the choice of language and metaphors leads to different scientific insights. This process is illustrated through discussions of military metaphors in biomedical writings, a comparison between Japanese and English science, and a fascinating examination of the English translation of Freud's work and how it compares to the original German edition.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Each chapter makes an original contribution to our understanding of the nature and diversity of the discourse of science." --Carolyn R. Miller, Isis
"Montgomery writes to a general, educated audience, in an intelligible but decidedly 'literary' tone that expresses ideas in eloquent turns of phrase... Perhaps if more scientists today were, like Montgomery, able to transfer their observational abilities to the examination of their own texts, if more were interested in recognizing the social components of their discourse rather than in attacking those who suggest that science has a rhetorical element, if more were willing to write books like The Scientific Voice, perhaps then we would have a return of the eloquent science writer Montgomery portrays. This book is a big step in that direction." --Leah Ceccareo, University of Washington, Technical Communication Quarterly
"Recommended for general readers, lower-division undergraduates, and faculty." --Choice
"Montgomery is fascinated with scientific language, how it is born, how it grows, how it is transformed and how it is sometimes stultified. His interest is not an academically driven exercise but springs from an infectious desire to know how science works....Montgomery offers a survey of the field of scientific illustrations and the ways in which they have been read, not only in terms of their iconography and pictorial effect, but also as embodiments of changing ideologies and shifting epistemologies. The 'rhetoric' of imagery is fraught with internal contradictions, competing messages and the chance that the visual representation may be perceived in new ways not intended by its maker....Montgomery combines sound scholarship with a sense of humor, which occasionally becomes a sense of urgency when experiments with language get out of hand and acquire a canonical status they do not deserve. This book will be read with enjoyment by all those who suspect that the truths of the present are often the metaphors of the past." --Nature
"This is an exciting and imaginative book. Montgomery treats a number of areas that are not well covered in the history of science literature and makes thoughtful contributions to these areas. His scholarship is wide-ranging and his insights are often important, always surprising. I recommend this book highly." --Albert Van Helden, Professor of History, Rice University
"Montgomery has performed a renaissance-like job in showing the language-bound commonalities between the natural sciences and psychoanalysis. His chapter on Freud opens new and promising areas for future exploration." --Martin Schulman, Editor, Psychoanalytic Review
"What seems to me most valuable about the book is its historically-informed explication of the different writing styles. Rather than just look at particular textual strategies, etc., work is considered in the context of broader socio-cultural movements and issues. It brings a sense of depth that is lacking works that are confines to one period or set of texts...This book should be appealing for textbook use in departments of English, Rhetoric, and Communication, where, in all three cases, there is growing interest in the rhetoric of science....Readily useful for teaching....Well written, meaty, and solid in its scholarship." --John Lyne, University of Iowa
"Readily useful for teaching. The chapters can be taken independently or assigned in different order. It can function either as a 'core' text, or as a supplement. I like the book a great deal. It is well written, meaty, and solid in its scholarship." --John Lyne, Ph.D., Professor of Communication Studies, University of Iowa
"Montgomery writes to a general, educated audience, in an intelligible but decidedly 'literary' tone that expresses ideas in eloquent turns of phrase... Perhaps if more scientists today were, like Montgomery, able to transfer their observational abilities to the examination of their own texts, if more were interested in recognizing the social components of their discourse rather than in attacking those who suggest that science has a rhetorical element, if more were willing to write books like The Scientific Voice, perhaps then we would have a return of the eloquent science writer Montgomery portrays. This book is a big step in that direction." --Leah Ceccareo, University of Washington, Technical Communication Quarterly
"Recommended for general readers, lower-division undergraduates, and faculty." --Choice
"Montgomery is fascinated with scientific language, how it is born, how it grows, how it is transformed and how it is sometimes stultified. His interest is not an academically driven exercise but springs from an infectious desire to know how science works....Montgomery offers a survey of the field of scientific illustrations and the ways in which they have been read, not only in terms of their iconography and pictorial effect, but also as embodiments of changing ideologies and shifting epistemologies. The 'rhetoric' of imagery is fraught with internal contradictions, competing messages and the chance that the visual representation may be perceived in new ways not intended by its maker....Montgomery combines sound scholarship with a sense of humor, which occasionally becomes a sense of urgency when experiments with language get out of hand and acquire a canonical status they do not deserve. This book will be read with enjoyment by all those who suspect that the truths of the present are often the metaphors of the past." --Nature
"This is an exciting and imaginative book. Montgomery treats a number of areas that are not well covered in the history of science literature and makes thoughtful contributions to these areas. His scholarship is wide-ranging and his insights are often important, always surprising. I recommend this book highly." --Albert Van Helden, Professor of History, Rice University
"Montgomery has performed a renaissance-like job in showing the language-bound commonalities between the natural sciences and psychoanalysis. His chapter on Freud opens new and promising areas for future exploration." --Martin Schulman, Editor, Psychoanalytic Review
"What seems to me most valuable about the book is its historically-informed explication of the different writing styles. Rather than just look at particular textual strategies, etc., work is considered in the context of broader socio-cultural movements and issues. It brings a sense of depth that is lacking works that are confines to one period or set of texts...This book should be appealing for textbook use in departments of English, Rhetoric, and Communication, where, in all three cases, there is growing interest in the rhetoric of science....Readily useful for teaching....Well written, meaty, and solid in its scholarship." --John Lyne, University of Iowa
"Readily useful for teaching. The chapters can be taken independently or assigned in different order. It can function either as a 'core' text, or as a supplement. I like the book a great deal. It is well written, meaty, and solid in its scholarship." --John Lyne, Ph.D., Professor of Communication Studies, University of Iowa
About the Author
Scott L. Montgomery is a geologist, writer, and translator currently residing in Seattle, Washington. Author of Minds for the Making, he has written widely in the areas of science, culture, and language studies and has published essays in many journals, including Science as Culture, The Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Central Park.
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Scott L. Montgomery is an author, geologist, and independent scholar. In addition to his books, he has written many scientific and scholarly papers and monographs on a range of subjects, including energy, petroleum geology, history of science, language studies, education, and American culture. He teaches in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, and has lectured at many universities.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Voice to be Heard,
By
This review is from: The Scientific Voice (Hardcover)
Geologist, linguist, energy expert and careful writer, Scott Montgomery impresses me especially (psychiatrist) with his chapter on Freud translations--a complicated subject that he makes clear with an overview of history, culture and, of course, language.
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First Sentence:
The T-DNA transfer process of Agrobacterium tumefaciens is activated by the induction of the expression of the Ti plasmid virulence loci by plant signal molecules such as acetosyringone. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
rangaku scholars, holistic discourse, chemical discourse, nomenclatural systems, lunar face, scientific speech, technical speech, biomedical discourse, scientific imagery, technical discourse, lunar surface Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, New Haven, Yale University Press, United States, Royal Society, Harvard University Press, Cambridge University Press, University of California Press, World War, Thomas Harriot, University of Chicago Press, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Francis Bacon, Japanese Studies, Sigmund Freud, The Question of Freudian Discourse, Van Helden, Basic Books, Kagakushi Kenkyu, Seventeenth Century, William Gilbert, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, International Review of Psychoanalysis, Princeton University Press, Chu Hsi New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The T-DNA transfer process of Agrobacterium tumefaciens is activated by the induction of the expression of the Ti plasmid virulence loci by plant signal molecules such as acetosyringone. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
rangaku scholars, holistic discourse, chemical discourse, nomenclatural systems, lunar face, scientific speech, technical speech, biomedical discourse, scientific imagery, technical discourse, lunar surface Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, New Haven, Yale University Press, United States, Royal Society, Harvard University Press, Cambridge University Press, University of California Press, World War, Thomas Harriot, University of Chicago Press, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Francis Bacon, Japanese Studies, Sigmund Freud, The Question of Freudian Discourse, Van Helden, Basic Books, Kagakushi Kenkyu, Seventeenth Century, William Gilbert, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, International Review of Psychoanalysis, Princeton University Press, Chu Hsi New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
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19
books
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- The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA by James D. Watson on 4 pages
- The Double Helix by James D. Watson on 4 pages
- The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin on 4 pages
- On the Origin of Species (Penguin Classics) by Charles Darwin on 4 pages
- The Advancement of Learning (Modern Library Science) by Francis Bacon on 4 pages
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- Research Genres: Explorations and Applications (Cambridge Applied Linguistics) by John M. Swales on page 26, page 87, and Back Matter
- The Transparent Body: A Cultural Analysis Of Medical Imaging (In Vivo:the Cultural Mediations of Biomedical Science) by Jose Van Dijck in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Metaphor and Analogy in the Sciences (Origins: Studies in the Sources of Scientific Creativity) by F. Hallyn on page 94, and page 98
- GOVERNANCE OF SCIENCE (Issues in Society) by FULLER in Back Matter
- Science in Translation: Movements of Knowledge through Cultures and Time by Scott L. Montgomery in Back Matter
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