Re: The Deconstruction of Science Article
Greg Billock (billgr@cco.caltech.edu)
Mon, 2 Mar 1998 10:04:48 -0800 (PST)Bill Crouse,
> Reflectorites!
>
> The article I mentioned on the decontruction of science can be found on the
> web at this location:
>
> http://www.worldandi.com/archive/nsjan98.htm
Yeah, I read it. I thought it was a good summary of the issue. I have
been to a couple of colloquia dealing with the "science wars." There I
was convinced that the whole issue is probably overblown, and the fault
for it lies largely on scientists feeling threatened. While there are
problems and comprehension gaps on the parts of 'science studies' folks,
I think the idea that Brockman has in _The Third Culture_ sheds the
most light on it--he says that the 'first culture' has largely been
disenfranchised in our macro-culture: leftist intellectuals aren't
consulted about anything these days, and write stuff incomprehensible to
the public in their own journals. The 'second culture' of science is
also largely disenfranchised as well: they write stuff incomprehensible
to the public in their own journals, too, and are consulted on nothing
of social importance. Brockman thinks there is a 'third culture' of
scientists who are taking their opinions, discoveries, theories, paradigms
to the public at large in easy-to-understand books, and that it is
these individuals who are reclaiming the space of the university
intellectuals in our society.
I would worry about anyone who thought social context didn't influence
the course of science--anyone who has been involved in writing grants should
recognize this. There may be more influence in some areas than others,
and it is interesting to see where and how this works. If science studies
can help shed light on this, that would be interesting. One would hope
there would be social mechanisms within science to recognize and determine
when theories are valuable and not valuable, and that these mechanisms would
operate in tandem with the "published" "objective" mechanisms science is
supposed to operate on. That is, one would hope that there are social
mechanisms whereby people would be encourage to transfer efforts away from
research programs which are going nowhere into ones which are promising.
Science studies, in my view, could be helpful in figuring out how those
mechanisms are working--or failing to work--and where there are gaps between
those mechanisms and those we wish we had. All anyone who thinks scientists
are always objective, curiousity-driven, creative-problem-solving,
independent, rationalists needs to do is read Feynman, for heavens' sakes!
-Greg