A House Built on Sand

Abstract

Abstract The interdisciplinary enterprise of Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS) fosters the view that the results of scientific inquiry are social constructions that are strongly influenced by ideology and special interests. Academics working within traditions of postmodernism and cultural studies use both theoretical analysis and historical case studies to defend their allegations that the objectivity and empirical character of science have been vastly overrated. This anthology, with essays by philosophers, historians, scientists, and engineers, scrutinizes these claims in detail. Inspired by the Sokal hoax, these essays provide devastating refutations of the most central and widely trumpeted claims of the postmodernist critique of science. Included are clear analyses of philosophical concepts such as relativism, theory ladenness, underdetermination of theory by evidence, scientific experimentation, objectivity, the context of discovery, the role of metaphors in science, and sociology of scientific knowledge. The historical episodes discussed come from alchemy, the Scientific Revolution, Darwinian evolutionary theory, reproductive biology, particle physics, fluid mechanics, relativity theory, and statistics. Implications are drawn for science education, science journalism, science development, and the historiography of science.

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