CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Szabó, Tamás |
|---|---|
| Title | The presence and perception of Lysenkoism and Michurinist biology at the Genetic Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1948-1966 |
| Summary | After agronomist T. D. Lysenko gained supreme power in Soviet agricultural matters in 1948, his controversial Michurinist biology was ardently exported to satellite states, including Hun-gary. In the midst of this centralized purging of modern genetics and evolutionary biology, the Genetic Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences inexplicably seemed to resist the ide-ological, “pseudos cientificȁ d; push until Lysenko’s fall in 1964-65. In my thesis, to understand the history of plant genetic research at the Genetic Institute between 1948 and 1966, I show the extent, and the involved scientists’ perception of Lysenkoism and Michurinist biology. By analyzing archival sources through interrelated con-ceptions of relationships (environment and organisms; humans and society; politics and sci-ence) of the rival scientific discourses, a representative image is drawn about the perceived order of things. This is interpreted using the works of Latour, and Lewontin and Levins, em-phasizing a science that is in the collective making; merging context and contents; historical contingency; interpenetration and mutual constitutiveness. It is found that though operating with different sets of closed concepts, both discourses share approximately the same stance in their relationships toward the natural and social envi-ronment; the role of humans; and the interaction of politics and science. The same underlying attitude of modernity is uncovered, stressing the idea of a consciously designed of society with Promethean men, and the subordination of nature to their will; devoid of political and historical self-reflection, promoting the often still prevailing, yet false idea of neutral science in the sole service of society. |
| Supervisor | Aistara, Guntra |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/szabo_tamas.pdf |
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