"We Shall Have to Make the Best of It:" The Conversion of Dennis Sciama

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorHunt, James Christopheren
dc.contributor.committeechairPitt, Joseph C.en
dc.contributor.committeememberBurian, Richard M.en
dc.contributor.committeememberHirsh, Richard F.en
dc.contributor.committeememberWeiss, Steven C.en
dc.contributor.committeememberReeves, Barbara J.en
dc.contributor.departmentScience and Technology Studiesen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T21:19:14Zen
dc.date.adate2005-10-14en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T21:19:14Zen
dc.date.issued2005-09-09en
dc.date.rdate2008-10-14en
dc.date.sdate2005-09-22en
dc.description.abstractThe cosmologist Dennis W. Sciama (1926-1999) was a long-standing advocate of the steady state model of the universe. This theory, originally proposed in 1948 by Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle, suggested that the universe was eternal, and unchanging on the largest scales. Contrary to the popular image of a scientist as a dispassionate, unbiased investigator of nature, Sciama fervently hoped the steady state model to be correct. In addition, and also pace the stereotypical image of a scientist, Sciama was motivated significantly by "extrascientific" or aesthetic factors in his adoption of the model. Finally, Sciama, in a stark contrast to the naive falsificationism usually presented as a virtue of the "scientific method," went through a several-year period of attempting to "save" the model from hostile data. However, Sciama abandoned the model in 1966 due to increasingly reliable data relating to the distribution of quasars. Thus the Sciama case also stands as a counterexample to irrationalist criticisms of science, according to which scientists can and will always find ways to hold on to their "pet" theories until they die, regardless of contradictory data. Sciama's conversion also sheds light on the iterative process that goes on as scientists localize and attempt to repair faults in their theories.en
dc.description.degreePh. D.en
dc.identifier.otheretd-09222005-221824en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-09222005-221824/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/39458en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartHuntDissertation.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectanomaliesen
dc.subjectsteady stateen
dc.subjectPlanck's Principleen
dc.subjectaesthetics of scienceen
dc.subjecttheory choiceen
dc.subjectcosmologyen
dc.title"We Shall Have to Make the Best of It:" The Conversion of Dennis Sciamaen
dc.typeDissertationen
thesis.degree.disciplineScience and Technology Studiesen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen
thesis.degree.namePh. D.en

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
HuntDissertation.pdf
Size:
1.07 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Doctoral Dissertations