SCIENCE STUDIES LITERATURE 71 Alvarcs's book fills a number of gaps in all the existing literature on "appropriate technology" and alternative development models. These gaps arise because of a lack of historical and philosophical insight into the nature of development. For serious thinkers concentrating on alternate development strategies, Homo Faber is a necessary reading because it provides a conceptual Framework For the rational justification of such alternatives. It will be fruitful for thinkers of all disciplines, and not merely those working on history of science and technology. It would be a much happier situation if the Indian universities take congnizancc of such useful books also while selecting their texts. V SHIVA J BANDYOPADHYAY 1 "The book also serves as a text-reference book for students of engineering, science, social science, etc., the foundational inter-disciplinary courses, prescribed by universities, eg., Bombay, Marathwada, Shivaji, South Gujarat Universities*', announcement of Science, Technology and Society in the Modern Age on the cover jacket of Science and its Methodology. 2 Refer D T S Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, 1962, 1970; P Feyeraband Against Method, London, New Left Books, 1975; I Lakatos and A Musgrave (eds) Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, Cambridge University Press, 1970, pp 91-196; F Suppe (ed). The Structure of Scientific Theories, Urbana, 1974; M ¥o\anyi Personal Knowledge, Routledge and Kcgan Paul, 1958; M Bunge, Treatise on Basic Philosophy (four volumes), Dordrecht, D Reidel, 1977, 1979. ' See R Carnap, Logical Foundations of Probability, Chicago, 1962; G Hempel, Aspects of Scientific Explanation, 1965; Nagel, The Structure of Science, 1951. 4 Dcrek de Solla Price, Little Science, Big Science, Columbia University Press, New York, 1968; R K Merton, The Sociology of Science, University of Chicago Press, 1975; J Ravetz, Scientific Knowledge and its Social Problems, London, Oxford Universtiy Press, 1971; G Holton Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein, Harward University Press, 1973; H Rose and S Rose, Science and Society, Alien Lane, 1961; H Rose and S Rose, The Political Economy of Science, Macmillan, 1976; H Rose and S Rose, The Radicalisatian of Science, Macmillan 1976; B Barnes Scientific Knowledge and Sociological Theory, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974; M Mulkay, Science and the Sociology of Knowledge, George Alien and Unwin, 1979. 5 A Rahman, in M Terch and R M Young (ed). Changing Perspective in the History of Science, Heinmann, 1973; S N Sen, Vijnaner Itihas (History of Science), Indian Association for Cultivation of Science, 1955. 6 S N Sen in S Sinha (ed), Science, Technology and Culture, India International Centre, 1970. 7 According to Alvarcs this irrational concept of development is yet to make its most destructive impact. His point is that the colonial impact has been small precisely because we are at the beginning of the real colonial age. The comprehensive disintegration of non-western societies is yet to come.