The logic of science and technology as a developmental tendency of modernity
TL;DR: The post-Marxist Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller as discussed by the authors argued that science and technology, those "two cumulative and progressive developing institutions" are so important that an interruption of their evolution would mean the collapse of modernity itself.
Abstract: The post-Marxist Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller can be taken as a significant reference for a non-specialist philosophical engagement with science and modernity. In her book A Theory of Modernity (1999) she emphasized the relevance of science and technology for forming an insightful historical and philosophical reflection on modernity and post-modernity. She argued that science and technology, those “two cumulative and progressive developing institutions”, are so important that an interruption of their evolution would mean the “collapse” of modernity itself. In particular, their progress is an unfolding of what Heller calls “rationalistic enlightenment,” that is, the unrestrained criticism and the constant renewal of all realms of society and culture that characterizes the modern world. This emphasis on science is a distinguishing feature of her perspective in comparison to other influential treatments of modernity, such as Jurgen Habermas’s Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne [The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity] (1985). Habermas characterized the unfinished project of modernity (Die Moderne: Ein unvollendetes Projekt) almost exclusively in terms of historical awareness (modernes Zeitbewustsein) and the problematic justification of modernity (Selbstvergewisserung der Moderne) as a free and self-grounding process. Unlike Heller, Habermas de facto downplayed the role of science for (the discourse on) modernity although earlier considerations of his strongly influenced Heller’s opinions on science.
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01 Jan 2008
4 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical discourse study of children's competence in public texts on social care of children is presented, using the method Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with an ideology-critical approach.
Abstract: Individualization of Children: A Critical Discourse Study of Childrens' Competence in Public Texts on Social Care of Children
The aim of this study is to critically examine and discuss overarching notions and discourses
on children and individualization, with a starting point in public texts within the field of social
work with children. The empirical material has been two SOU-reports (“Swedish Government
Official Reports”), two paragraphs from socialtjanstlagen (“The Social Services Act”), and the
BBIC-model (“The Child's Need in the Center”), which all has been viewed as examples of
social practice within the field social work with children. The orders of discourse have been
categorized as a “subject-oriented” and an “object-oriented” view on children. These have
been studied, using the method “critical discourse analysis” (CDA) with an ideology-critical
aim, in order to study how, primary, the “subject”-view on children might have effects on
childrens' situation in society. Theories of individualization have been used, as well as
perspectives gathered from disciplines such as philosophy, history of ideas, law and sociology.
The study relates the shift towards a “subject-oriented” view on children to social work, to see
in what ways public texts on social work relates to this shift in view of children, which in my
study is part of a wider individualization-process in the society. The results of the study shows
for example that a more individualized view on children is gaining ground in public texts on
social work, mainly through the “subject-oriented” order of discourse, but that this is not the
only order of discourse present. Children are, though, to a larger degree viewed as competent
subjects, unique individuals, and partly liberated from their parents. The result of the study
has also showed that individualization is valued as part of a desirable progress towards a
modern society, by one of the SOU-reports, which also recognizes that the prospects of
socially integrating people might be low in a individualized society and that an individualized
and highly differentiated society might have negative effects on young people's psychical
health, suggesting that “new competences” has to be taught in school. The study also suggests
that the individualization of children seems to fit well into a modern society where the double
loyalties between work-life and family-life are problematic for actors that need full loyalty,
and not shared. The shift towards individualized children also fits well into a society where
the family-institution is individualized, more uncertain, and therefore maybe obsolete for its
task. Hence, the individualization of children might prepare children for handling this new
situation by their own means, which is a well recognized feature of an individualized society,
and if they become fully individualized, their voices might not be regarded as different from
other individualized human beings, which contradicts the fact that the “subject-oriented” view
on children promotes, namely children as independent actors. Due to childrens' dependent
state, individualization might cause the opposite effect on them, leaving them vulnerable in a
new way.
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1962
TL;DR: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as discussed by the authors is a seminal work in the history of science and philosophy of science, and it has been widely cited as a major source of inspiration for the present generation of scientists.
Abstract: A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were-and still are. "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is that kind of book. When it was first published in 1962, it was a landmark event in the history and philosophy of science. And fifty years later, it still has many lessons to teach. With "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", Kuhn challenged long-standing linear notions of scientific progress, arguing that transformative ideas don't arise from the day-to-day, gradual process of experimentation and data accumulation, but that revolutions in science, those breakthrough moments that disrupt accepted thinking and offer unanticipated ideas, occur outside of "normal science," as he called it. Though Kuhn was writing when physics ruled the sciences, his ideas on how scientific revolutions bring order to the anomalies that amass over time in research experiments are still instructive in our biotech age. This new edition of Kuhn's essential work in the history of science includes an insightful introductory essay by Ian Hacking that clarifies terms popularized by Kuhn, including paradigm and incommensurability, and applies Kuhn's ideas to the science of today. Usefully keyed to the separate sections of the book, Hacking's essay provides important background information as well as a contemporary context. Newly designed, with an expanded index, this edition will be eagerly welcomed by the next generation of readers seeking to understand the history of our perspectives on science.
36,808 citations
34,393 citations
Book•
29 Apr 1983
TL;DR: This article explored examples of this process of invention -the creation of Welsh Scottish national culture, the elaboration of British royal rituals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the origins of imperial ritual in British India and Africa, and the attempts by radical movements to develop counter-traditions of their own.
Abstract: Many of the traditions which we think of as very ancient in their origins were not in fact sanctioned by long usage over the centuries, but were invented comparative recently. This book explores examples of this process of invention - the creation of Welsh Scottish 'national culture'; the elaboration of British royal rituals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the origins of imperial ritual in British India and Africa; and the attempts by radical movements to develop counter-traditions of their own. This book addresses the complex interaction of past and present, bringing together historicans and anthropologists in a fascinating study of ritual and symbolism which possess new questions for the understanding of our history.
7,291 citations
TL;DR: Science as Practice and Culture as discussed by the authors explores one of the newest and most controversial developments within the rapidly changing field of science studies: the move toward studying scientific practice, the work of doing science, and the associated move towards studying scientific culture, understood as the field of resources that practice operates in and on.
Abstract: Science as Practice and Culture explores one of the newest and most controversial developments within the rapidly changing field of science studies: the move toward studying scientific practice--the work of doing science--and the associated move toward studying scientific culture, understood as the field of resources that practice operates in and on. Andrew Pickering has invited leading historians, philosophers, sociologists, and anthropologists of science to prepare original essays for this volume. The essays range over the physical and biological sciences and mathematics, and are divided into two parts. In part I, the contributors map out a coherent set of perspectives on scientific practice and culture, and relate their analyses to central topics in the philosophy of science such as realism, relativism, and incommensurability. The essays in part II seek to delineate the study of science as practice in arguments across its borders with the sociology of scientific knowledge, social epistemology, and reflexive ethnography.
1,621 citations
01 Sep 1970
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make an attempt to elucidate T. S. Kuhn's conception of a paradigm, which is based on the assumption that Kuhn is one of the outstanding philosophers of science.
Abstract: 1. The initial difficulty: Kuhn's multiple definitions of a paradigm . 2. The originality of Kuhn's sociological notion of a paradigm: the paradigm is something which can function when the theory is not there . 3. The philosophic consequence of Kuhn's insistence on the centrality of normal science: philosophically speaking, a paradigm is an artefact which can be used as a puzzle-solving device; not a metaphysical world-view . 4. A paradigm has got to be a concrete ‘picture’ used analogically; because it has got to be a ‘way of seeing’ . 5. Conclusion: preview of the logical characteristics of a paradigm . The purpose of this paper is to elucidate T. S. Kuhn's conception of a paradigm; and it is written on the assumption that T. S. Kuhn is one of the outstanding philosophers of science of our time. It is curious that, up to now, no attempt has been made to elucidate this notion of paradigm, which is central to Kuhn's whole view of science as set out in his [1962]. Perhaps this is because this book is at once scientifically perspicuous and philosophically obscure. It is being widely read, and increasingly appreciated, by actual research workers in the sciences, so that it must be (to a certain extent) scientifically perspicuous. On the other hand, it is being given widely diverse interpretations by philosophers, which gives some reason to think that it is philosophically obscure.
822 citations