Word: woodcock
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...with this sense of drama that Alexander Woodcock and Monte Davis hail the arrival of catastrophe theory, a methodology as different from traditional science as Marxism was from existing economic thought. Since its formulation around 1964, catastrophe theory has emerged as one of few mathematical breakthroughs in recent times to arouse public interest. The controversy lies in its claim to have broadened the scope of science to include the social sciences and humanities, uniting such diverse phenomena as the collapse of a bridge, the crash of the stock market, and the fall of the Roman empire. Yet its subject...
...Woodcock and Davis promote this viewpoint in what is perhaps the inevitable consequence of the catastrophe theory controversy, a book designed for the layman. Except for an occasional article in Scientific American or Newsweek, literature on this new methodology has been highly technical--and few members of the general public are sufficiently adept at differential topology to wade through such formidable math...
...authors bypass the math and cut to the core, relating the theory's history, fundamental concepts, applications and elements of the current controversy. Although swallowing the theory without the math requires some suspension of disbelief, Woodcock and Davis manage to present a cogent summary and the reader is left with the feeling that he has at least a handhold on the material...
...simplified, though, that one must take care not to relax his critical faculties. Although the authors attempt to offer an objective analysis, as advocates of the theory, they tend to be overenthusiastic. It's not that they do not present opposing views (which they do), it's just that Woodcock and Davis always get the last word. Every objection is countered, and for a while it seems as if catastrophe theory really is the successor to the calculus--until the authors present a series of applications of their own device. The reader's reaction to these examples will most likely...
...first of the three Teng-Carter summit meetings was to be held around the burnished mahogany table in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Vice President Walter Mondale, Vance, Brzezinski and Ambassador-designate to China Leonard Woodcock were scheduled to join Carter. According to U.S. officials who have drafted an agenda, the first major subject was to be a general review of global issues. The talk is virtually certain to focus on China's obsession: Soviet activity around the world. Other likely topics include such crisis situations as Viet Nam's rout of the Chinese-supported regime in Cambodia...