Scientists' Competitive Behavior Is Not Peculiar To Our Competitive Age
Author: Robert K. Merton, pp.12

century, America's preeminent science historian/sociologist, Robert K. Merton, has played a valuably instructive role in analyzing the processes of science and in elucidating the research world's manners and mores.

The recipient of many awards, the 84-year-old Merton-- University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University in New York and a member of the National Academy of Sciences for the past quarter-century--was most recently honored by the American Council of Learned Societies. In April, he was invited to deliver the Washington, D.C., organization's prestigious Haskins Lecture to cap the 75th-anniversary celebration of its founding.

The author of numerous influential works--most notable, perhaps, his 1965 book On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postcript (3rd ed., University of Chicago Press, 1993)--Merton has achieved international acclaim for the pertinence and applicability of his subject matter, the scope and precision of...

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