Class 16 - Science, history and culture
Checking in
In this session, we’re going to discuss Patricia Fara’s paper What is Science? An Historian’s Perplexities
Before we start, we’re going to check in for five minutes. Just say hello to your fellow students, talk about how the course is going, and if there are any questions that you are facing. And I want you to also discuss the following question: what did you find most interesting about the assigned reading?
Science is Not the Same Everywhere
One of the most powerful ideas in this paper is the idea that science, as a set of cultural practices, is not the same everywhere. It is geographically localised.
We’re going to start by getting you thinking about the science you were taught in school.
Writing exercise
What were you taught in your school science classes? How was this justified? What were you not taught? Is there anything that you were taught that you now know to be wrong? Is there anything that you were taught that you now find useful? Is there anything that felt specific to your own cultural context?
After writing for ten minutes, we’ll discuss in groups the following question: how was the science you were taught in school related to the culture of which you are a part?
The Truth of Science
So, this raises the question: what about truth? Science is true, isn’t it?
Here, there are two extreme positions. One is that scientific ways of knowing are pure and independent of cultural context. They are true, in a substantial, even ultimate sense.
The other is that science is simply another set of ways of knowing, indistinguishable from, for example, myth or religion, and there is nothing true about science. What are the arguments for each of these positions? Where, on the continuum between these, does your own position lie?
Robin Wall Kimmerer
To get us ready for next week’s class, we’re going to watch a short video interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer, a scientist who attempts to “braid” together scientific knowledge and other ways of knowing.
Homework
We’re going to move on to reading some of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s fascinating book, Braiding Sweetgrass. For your homework, I want you to read the opening chapter, Skywoman Falling.