Blog 10

                The first four chapters of A Feeling for the Organism describe the early life of Barbra McClintock, her journey in becoming a scientist, and the struggles she faced during her years of research. One of the most notable struggles that McClintock faced was being a woman in the field of science, which was especially thought of as only a man’s profession during her time. Even though she was extremely well renowned and respected, finding and holding a job was one of the greatest difficulties she had to face often. She did her best to not let such issues get in her way. She stood for her freedom as a woman in science and would often go completely against gender stereotypes to the point that many would forget that she was a woman. This is something I can relate to since I also choose to not follow most feminine standards such as always having to wear makeup, dressing pretty or sexy every day, and to be dainty in daily activities. I can empathize with McClintock’s efforts of focusing on her career in science and not on being a woman, yet others during her time did not share the same empathy. The fact that she was a woman would always be a road block for her which was compounded by her overzealousness of not taking a “woman’s job” and not excepting outside help from her male colleagues. I appreciate that these days it is more common for woman to hold jobs that used to be considered only for men, especially in the scientific field. Yet, the issues of prejudice against woman that McClintock faced are still present. If people recognized that what is important in the scientific field is achieving the internal goods of fulfilling the purpose of science, than issues such as gender prejudice would likely not be a problem.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog 2

        The first eight chapters of Franklin’s Autobiography describe his early life through his travels and beginnings in Philadelphia. As I read through the autobiography, there were a few things about both Franklin’s characteristics and some of the situations that he went through that stood out to me. Franklin for the most part did not seem to complain about anything he’s was going through. He might have in person and there were a few disgruntled writings such as mentioning that he and the others that were heading for Amboy had been on the water for thirty hours with no food or drink; yet, his writing style and how he would switch to a happier topic showed that it really did not bother him. Often in today’s society, we find it so easy to complain about things since everything is nearly handed to us. When it is this easy for us to be warm and sheltered, well fed, and go nearly anywhere without having to walk the whole distance, we tend to get upset at whatever does not follow this
Read more

Blog 18

                Part two of the biography Albert Einstein: Ideas and Opinions described Einstein’s views of politics, government, and pacifism. All of the excerpts about Einstein’s views of these areas are very insightful and important to consider, the one that stood out to me the most and seemed as the best summation of his other accounts of pacifism was the section “The pacifist problem.” In it Einstein talks about people should not rely solely on the government to solve all sorts of problems and deny that the problem involves them in anyway. He goes on to state that it is a person’s job and right to stand up for their morals conscientious objection alongside other organizations with the same ideals, even if that means standing against one’s government. Darwin and McClintock demonstrated this kind of conscientious objection when both stood up for their research and fought for the truths of their discoveries to be made known despite the backlash they had to face from it. In this day
Read more

Blog 4

                The second chapter of Dr. Pennock’s book builds upon the notion of virtue theory by presenting the idea of internal and external goods, how those goods relate to science, and the way science has been and can be shaped by which goods a scientist chooses to focus on. Personally, I found the discussion of MacIntyre’s quotes about internal and external goods interesting. It made me think of some kind of operant conditioning that either someone can put someone through or that one can put oneself through. This kind of conditioning or choice between reaching for the internal good of something (the feeling of joy of performing or completing a task) or for the external good (gaining a reward for completing a task) is a choice that we have to face every day, and not just in professional settings. Although, as Dr. Pennock shows later in the chapter, the effect of this choice does play an important role in the efficacy of a professional practice, especially science. Dr. Pennock pro
Read more