The Lysenko effect: Undermining the autonomy of science

Endeavour

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 143-147

  Roll Hansen, Nils ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OSLO   (Norway)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GENETIC ENGINEERING; PUBLIC POLICY;

AUTONOMY; POLITICIANS; SOVIET RUSSIA;

SOCIAL ASPECTS;

EID: 28844444489     PISSN: 01609327     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.endeavour.2005.10.003     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. In the vast literature on the history of Lysenkoism the classic participant's story is Medvedev, Z. (1969) The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko, Columbia University Press (New York, NY, USA), which went through numerous versions of mimeographed and clandestinely circulated reproductions in Russia before it appeared in English translation.
2. The accounts by American historians of science - Joravsky, D. (1970) The Lysenko Affair, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, USA);
3. and Graham, L. (1972) Science and Philosophy in the Soviet Union, Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY, USA) - stand out with special scholarly authority.
4. Soyfer, V. et al. (1994) Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, Rutgers University Press (Hermitage, NJ, USA), is a highly valuable account written by Soviet geneticists in exile.
5. It is based on years of extensive research in archives and other sources, including Soyfer's own experiences as a participant in the last phase of the struggle to get rid of Lysenko's regime in Soviet genetics. A new interpretation that emphasizes the internal struggles of the scientific community, and its collaboration with politico-bureaucratic system, characterizes the accounts of two younger Russian historians of science: Krementsov, N. (1997) Stalinist Science, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ, USA);
6. and Kojevnikov, A. (2004) Stalin's Great Science: The Times and Adventures of Soviet Physicists, Imperial College Press (London, UK). None of these accounts, however, look in any detail at the part played in the Lysenko affair by the principles of science policy that were derived from the Marxist philosophy of science
7. Joravsky, D. (1970), p. ix
8. Graham, L. (1972), p. 195
9. R. Lewontin, and R. Levins The Problem of Lysenkoism H. Rose S. Rose The Radicalization of Science: Ideology of/in the Natural Sciences 1976 Macmillan (London, UK) 32 64
10. Bukharin, N. et al. (1931) Science at the Cross Roads, Frank Cass (London, UK). The second edition of 1971 has a foreword by Joseph Needham and an introduction by P.G. Werskey
11. Soyfer, V. et al. (1994), p. 8
12. Ibid., pp. 53-58
13. Roll-Hansen, N. (2005) The Lysenko Effect: The Politics of Science, Humanity Books (Amherst, NY, USA), pp. 171-174
14. Roll-Hansen, N. (2005) The Lysenko Effect: The Politics of Science, Ibid., pp. 218-221
15. Roll-Hansen, N. (2005) The Lysenko Effect: The Politics of Science, Ibid., p. 113
16. T.D. Lysenko Tekhnika i metodika selektsii tomatov na Belotserkovskoi selekstantsii Biulleten Sortovodno-semennogo Upravleniia 4 1923 73 76
17. Vavilov, N.I. (1932) The process of evolution in cultivated plants. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics, Ithaca, New York, 1932 (Vol. 1), pp. 331-342, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (New York, NY, USA)
18. Vavilov, N.I. (1932) The process of evolution in cultivated plants. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics, Ithaca, New York, 1932 (Vol. 1), (op. cit. p. 340)
19. Goldschmidt, R. (1938) Physiological Genetics, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY, USA), p. 310
20. Roll-Hansen, N. (2005), pp. 182-184
21. The immediate impact of his theories and discoveries on Western science was less than might be expected from his reputation as a brilliant scientist. See Roll-Hansen, N. (1987) Zhizn' i trudy Vavilova v zapadnoi literature. Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniia i Tekhniki 4, pp. 52-56
22. Harland, S.C. (1948) The Listener 9 December, p.873
23. See for instance, Popper, K.R. (1945) The Open Society and its Enemies, George Routledge (London, UK)
24. R.K. Merton The Normative Structure of Science R.K. Merton The Sociology of Science 1973 The University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL, USA) 267 278
25. A recent example is Sachse, C. and Walker, M. (2005) Introduction: A Co-operative Perspective. Osiris 20, pp. 1-20
26. Sachse, C. and Walker, M. (2005) Introduction: A Co-operative Perspective. Osiris 20, (op. cit. p.17)
27. Gillespie, G.C. (1962) The Encyclopédie and the Jacobin Philosophy of Science: A Study in Ideas and Consequences. In Critical Problems in the History of Science (Claggett, M., ed.). pp. 255-289, The University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI, USA)
28. Gillespie, G.C. (1962) The Encyclopédie and the Jacobin Philosophy of Science: A Study in Ideas and Consequences. In Critical Problems in the History of Science. (op. cit. p.279)
29. Gillespie, G.C. (1962) The Encyclopédie and the Jacobin Philosophy of Science: A Study in Ideas and Consequences. In Critical Problems in the History of Science, Ibid., p. 281
30. Gillespie, G.C. (1962) The Encyclopédie and the Jacobin Philosophy of Science: A Study in Ideas and Consequences. In Critical Problems in the History of Science, Ibid., p. 282