Showing papers on "Science studies published in 1990"

Science and its fabrication

Abstract: The politics of the philosophy of science against universal method the aim of science observation objectified experiment science and the sociology of knowledge two sociological case studies the social and political dimension of science.

Science, Technology and Society

Abstract: I. FOUNDATIONS. 1. Why Study Science and Technology in Society? 2. Science and Technology: Their Natures and Relationship. 3. Contemporary Science and Technology: Some Important Characteristics. 4. Contexts of Science and Technology. 5. Theories of Science and Technology in Society. II. THE INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ON MODERN SOCIETY. 6. Social Institutions. 7. Social Groups. 8. World Views and Human Values. 9. Ethics. 10. The Character of Everyday Life. 11. The Fine Arts. 12. International Relations. III. THE INFLUENCE OF MODERN SOCIETY ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. 13. Influence Agents, Types, and Effects. 14. Social Control of Science and Technology. 15. Science, Technology, and the Future: New Mentalities, New Practices. Appendix. Glossary. Bibliography.

The myth of science education

Abstract: It is argued that the manner in which we teach science in the high schools represents an outdated positivistic conception of science. The standard presentation of a year of each of chemistry, biology and physics should be replaced by an integrated science plus history, philosophy, and sociology of science which would take a total of three years to complete. A proper appreciation for the true nature of science is essential to the continued health of the scientific enterprise.

Issues for STS Raised by Defence Science and Technology Policy

Abstract: This paper discusses a surprisingly understudied aspect of science studies, namely, the area of defence science and technology policy. It reviews work done in the past, and outlines a number of more recent developments that show that the interest taken in the field is growing. It discusses new directions that might be followed from sociological and economic perspectives, and suggests that the analysis of defence science and technology policy offers scope for integration between different fields within the social studies of science.

Sociology of Science Without the Sociology

Abstract: Whatever readers of Social Studies of Science think of Lawrence J. Prelli's attempt to bring together rhetoric and science studies, they will probably approve of his reading; the case studies on which he bases his argument are almost all by science studies researchers associated with this journal. But I think that A Rhetoric of Science is likely to offer more to rhetoric than to science studies. For the rhetoricians, it provides modern examples for some daunting lists of traditional categories of argumentative strategies. For the sociologists and historians of science, it may be interesting mainly as a perhaps uncomfortable example of how their studies can be used in another discipline. The word inventing in the subtitle is used in its technical sense, to refer to the division of Greek and Roman rhetoric called 'invention', which was concerned with the discovery of appropriate arguments for a given situation. While this field may suggest dusty historical scholarship to European academics, it is the basis of much of the research on contemporary discourse done in Speech Communications and English composition departments of the big American state universities. Recently researchers in this tradition have begun to look beyond the political and legal speeches that were their main texts to the study of academic discourse.1 Prelli's thesis is that the classical categories of stases (defining what is at issue) and topoi (commonplaces locating general lines of argument) can, with suitable modification, be used to generate scientific arguments. He rejects a model of scientific argumentation based entirely on logic, but asserts that

Science Studies in France: A Sociological View:

Abstract: In response to a recent descriptive account of the state of science studies in France, this Comment — which is a participant observer's account, not a research paper — seeks to contribute towards a sociological explanation of the observed state of affairs. The absence of specifically social studies of science in France is an aspect of the traditional French construal of science studies as consisting of (positivist or philosophically-minded) history of science. The reason why new approaches have difficulty in getting established is sought mainly in the structure of French institutions: decision-making bearing on intellectual choices is concentrated in very few hands, and these decisions affect, and streamline, most institutions throughout the country. Moreover, the large and overarching decision-making bodies, whose members have divergent preferences and interests, are inherently prudent and shun risk-taking: their very social structure favours conservatism.