Knowledge, Cultures as a Whole

KNOWLEDGE, CULTURES AS A WHOLE

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Document status: June 10, 2003

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Topics

Academic/symbolic knowledge as a whole

The variety of cultures

The place of science

Begin by considering the role of science within modern culture!

Science - The Important Questions

Much energy has been devoted through the 20^th century, especially since Roger Bacon, to the question of the truth of the content of science

Although this point is not explicit, much of the energy has been devoted to absolute truth and universality of science. This is evident even in the work of those philosophers who have been labeled “irrationalists” - Popper, Feyerabend, Kuhn, Lakatos… Implicit in the overtly apologetic nature of these works - the apparent exception being Feyerabend - is an apology for absolutism

But we know that science has truth and though there are conditions on this truth they are not those of relativism or revisability…even though there are ways in which the content of science is relative and revisable

It is better to focus on the nature of the truth content. Ask not is the truth of science Absolute, but what is the nature of this truth…is all else “pseudo-science” or “pseudo-knowledge”…and if not, what is the relation of science with the other modes, what is the geography of knowledge?

Start with the divisions of science itself… and pure science vs. application of science

Within science: hypothesis-induction, empiricism, conceptuality, verification, falsification or selection and criticism, macro and micro socio-political theories of science,…all have roles in different areas at different stages. Therefore, rather than regarding these processes as “theories” of the nature of the science process…treat them as complementary aspects…and so build up an account of science rather than a theory of it. Build up a field. The work mentioned above - since the time of Bacon and before, and the writing of persons such as Popper even when they are overtly and intentionally about the truth of science are also about the nature and place of science