Editorial Reviews
Midwest Book Review
Scientific practice is inherently shaped by the language in which it was created, and language is shaped by the culture that has produced it. It can be said that the history of science is as much a history of writers as it is of experiments. The Scientific Voice traces scientific discourse through time and across cultures (examining its character, evolution, and cultural origins) to demonstrate the profound influence of language on scientific thought, discovery, and progress throughout history. Drawing on examples from a range of disciplines, Scot Montgomery shows how the choice of language and metaphors used in science can lead to different scientific insights.
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"While often challenging, this book is a pleasure to read. It goes beyond what is usually considered to be ¿discourse analysis' although elements of that are present. Historical and cultural contexts of language are given top billing....If more evidence for a multicultural/multiscience perspective were needed, it has been provided here."--Science Education
"Each chapter makes an original contribution to our understanding of the nature and diversity of the discourse of science."--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."--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. Thie '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
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edition.
The Scientific Voice
The Scientific Voice,Scott L. Montgomery,The Guilford Press,1572300167,History,Miscellanea,Science,Scientific Communication,Social aspects,Sociology,Language Arts & Disciplines / Rhetoric
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