How to Think About Science

Series produced by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Series image

If science is neither cookery, nor angelic virtuosity, then what is it?

Modern societies have tended to take science for granted as a way of knowing, ordering and controlling the world. Everything was subject to science, but science itself largely escaped scrutiny. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years. Historians, sociologists, philosophers and sometimes scientists themselves have begun to ask fundamental questions about how the institution of science is structured and how it knows what it knows. In this 24 part series, first aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, producer David Cayley talks with some of the leading lights of this new field of study.


24 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: From Knowledge to Wisdom, by Nicholas Maxell. Published by Pentire Press, 2007
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Twenty-Four of a documentary series by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program Ideas.Modern societies ...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:57
Caption: The Trouble With Physics, by Lee Smolin. Published by Houghton Mifflin, 2006
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Twenty-Three of a documentary series by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program Ideas. Modern societie...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: The Harmony of Illusions , by Allan Young. Published by Princeton University Press, 1997
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Twenty-Two of a documentary series by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program Ideas. Modern societies ...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism, by Christopher Norris. Published by Routledge, 2000
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Twenty-One of a documentary series by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program Ideas. Modern societies ...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 54:00
Caption: Re-Thinking Science, published by Polity Press, 2002
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Twenty of a documentary series by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program Ideas. In this episode, he t...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Exploding the Gene Myth by Ruth Hubbard and Elijah Wald. Published by Beacon Press, 1999
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Nineteen of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tend...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA. The 1990 Massey Lectures by Richard Lewontin
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Eighteen of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tend...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Physicist and Professor of the history of science at Harvard
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Seventeen of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have ten...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: The Scientific Revolution, by Steven Shapin. Published by University of Chicago Press, 1998
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Sixteen of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tende...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:57
Caption: Disembodying Women, by Barbara Duden. Published by Harvard Univeristy Press, 1993
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Fifteen of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. The word gene is a scientif...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Evelyn Fox Keller
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Fourteen of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tend...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Codfish Newfoundland postage stamp
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Modern societies have tended to take science for granted as a way of knowing, ordering and controlling the world. Every...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:57
Caption: The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram. Published by Vintage, 1997
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Twelve of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:57
Caption: Nicolai Copernici Torinensis De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, Libri VI - On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, by Nicolaus Copernicus of Torin, Six Books (title page of 2nd edition, ex officina Henricpetrina Basel, 1566)
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Eleven of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Misunderstanding science? Edited by Alan Irwin and Brian Wynne, published by Cambridge University Press, 2004
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Ten of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended to...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Biologist Rupert Sheldrake
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Nine of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended t...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Published by Counterpoint.
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Eight of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended ...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Arthur Zajonc
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Seven of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended ...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:57
Caption: James Lovelock
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Six of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended to...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56
Caption: Ulrich Beck
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Five of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with CBC Radio’s program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended to ...

  • Added: Oct 23, 2009
  • Length: 53:56