Obituary: Bernard Barber And Mary Douglas

摘要

Bernard Barber was president of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) in 1980/1981, and the recipient of the Bernal Prize in 1994. Mary Douglas was awarded the Bernal Prize in 1995. They passed away within 9 months of each other, Barber on 20 August 2006 at the age of 88, Douglas on 16 May 2007, aged 86. We memorialize them here together for two reasons: first, Sal knew both Barber and Douglas and awarded them their Bernal Prizes in consecutive years in his capacity as 4S president (1994/1995); second, because in spite of the many differences between them, they shared a sense of the power of sociology as a disciplined approach to systematizing our understanding of the social order. And both Bernard and Mary enjoyed special relationships with their life partners. Elinor Barber (who had studied with Bob Merton) died in 1999; James Douglas died in 2004.