Challenges

by Serge Lang

This collection, based on several of Lang's "Files", deals with the area where the worlds of science and academia meet those of journalism and politics: social organisation, government, and the roles that education and journalism play in shaping opinions. In discussing specific cases in which he became involved, Lang addresses general questions of standards: standards of journalism, discourse, and of science. Recurring questions concern how people process information and misinformation; inhibition of critical thinking and the role of education; how to make corrections, and how attempts at corrections are sometimes obstructed; the extent to which we submit to authority, and whether we can hold the authorities accountable; the competence of so-called experts; and the use of editorial and academic power to suppress or marginalize ideas, evidence, or data that do not fit the tenets of certain establishments. By treating case studies and providing extensive documentation, Lang challenges some individuals and establishments to reconsider the ways they exercise their official or professional responsibilities.

211 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Serge Lang was an influential mathematician in the field of number theory. Algebra is his most famous book.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Yasiru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good. Lang may of course come across to some as a bit of an obsessive gadfly, but thanks to his 'files' this book does science and society a sorely-needed service- it exposes responsible parties' tribalism, evasions and cognitive dissonance, all in their own words! This approach of reproducing correspondences, witness testimony and extracts from reports makes for lengthy accounts, but it does a fair job of repelling the common (because commonly accepted) but too often unjustified 'out of context' or 'misinterpreted' defences.

The Baltimore case was a particularly interesting read. It exposes what I think are real dangers of charismatic leaders in science acting against the best interests of the profession and its careful standards, sometimes by rallying it against overhyped 'outside threats', to absolve themselves of responsibility or to cover-up misconduct that they view as mundane or not worth the trouble. Lang is a great critic of facile alternatives (see for instance the chapter on the Ladd-Lipset case) and it cuts through the whimpering evasions of the case decisively.

Lang's most problematic view is that he presents here a stance disputing HIV as the cause of AIDS. Or perhaps I should say his stance is that the hypothesis 'HIV causes AIDS' too soon became dogma without the necessary support. From a skim of the chapters on this view, Lang might indeed have seized on some problems of methodology and politicised motives and review, but it's unfortunate that he didn't revise his views in light of further, more rigorous evidence as it mounted.

Despite this qualm, Challenges might do well if it were restructured and reprinted, with much of the support material going into appendices, say.