From an amateur astronomer: "Legitimating Astronomy" http://2012hoax.wikidot.com/forum/t-271270/from-an-amateur-astronomer:legitimating-astronomy Posts in the discussion thread "From an amateur astronomer: "Legitimating Astronomy"" - Written by an amateur astronomer, this Ph. D. thesis is also useful for understanding the 2012 faithful. Sat, 11 Apr 2026 23:38:39 +0000 http://2012hoax.wikidot.com/forum/t-271270#post-888749 Re: From an amateur astronomer: "Legitimating Astronomy" http://2012hoax.wikidot.com/forum/t-271270/from-an-amateur-astronomer:legitimating-astronomy#post-888749 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 06:15:58 +0000 Astrogeek 334222 Ooh, quotable quote:

… the scientific community's feeling about activities they call 'pseudosciences' is that they are "the study of the non-existent by the incompetent" (Westrum 1982:89)

]]> http://2012hoax.wikidot.com/forum/t-271270#post-887316 Re: From an amateur astronomer: "Legitimating Astronomy" http://2012hoax.wikidot.com/forum/t-271270/from-an-amateur-astronomer:legitimating-astronomy#post-887316 Sun, 03 Oct 2010 04:35:48 +0000 CaneLaz 565066 that's some intense reading, but I think it'll be good. Thanks Jim.

]]> http://2012hoax.wikidot.com/forum/t-271270#post-885758 From an amateur astronomer: "Legitimating Astronomy" http://2012hoax.wikidot.com/forum/t-271270/from-an-amateur-astronomer:legitimating-astronomy#post-885758 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:43:37 +0000 540047 About a week ago, I met a tourist here named Graham Howard (not Hancock). He used to be a librarian at MIT, where he was in charge of the books donated by Thomas Kuhn, and also served as Noam Chomsky's librarian.

Graham is an amateur astronomer who's interested in the sociology of science, so it was natural that he chose an astronomy-related topic for his doctoral thesis. He entitled it "Legitimating Astronomy". It studies how astronomers make their case to funding agencies. Graham recommended that I read the chapter entitled "Boundary Work in Astronomy", dealing with (among other things) the distinctions astronomers establish between their own work and pseudosciences.

I found the chapter (it's #4) interesting and well-written. Here are the links:

To download the whole thesis:
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=0&article=1333&context=theses&type=additional

To download a summary:
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1333&context=theses

The link to the page where you can select the above links:
http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/333/.

Please note that on that page, the link for downloading the complete thesis is the one labeled "02Whole.pdf".

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