Religion and Science Flashcards
How is science closed system - denial of legitimacy
Polyani
Denies legitimacy to its rivals, believe system rejects any alternative worldview by refusing to grant them legitimacy
Evidence to support Polyani
Dr Velikovsky
Published worlds in collision, put forward a new theory of the origins of the earth, challenged fundamental assumptions of geology and evolutionary biology
Rejected by science community
Science is open - CUDOS
Merton
Sceince needs an ethos or set of norms that make scientists act in ways that serve the goal for increasing scientific knowledge
Oganised sceptism - no knowledge claim is regarded as scared, every idea is open to questioning
Universalism - the truth or falsity of scientific knowledge is judged by universal objective criteria regardless of sex, race
Science is open - falsification
Popper
Scientists set out to try and falsify existing theories, deliberately seeking evidence that would disprove them
Scientific knowflehe is cumulative, it builds of the achievements of previous scientists to develop a greater understanding of the world around us
For centuries, beloved that sun revolved around the earth - Copernicus showed this to be false
Science is closed - Paradigm
Kuhn
People are socialised into believing the paradigm (set of principles followed) through scientific education and training
Those who challenge the assumptions of the paradigm are likely to be ridiculed and hounded out the profession
Science as a social construction
Knorr Cetina
The invention of telescopes or other instruments allows scientists to construct new facts
These ‘facts’ are constructed in an artificial laboratory environments which do not resemble the natural world
Science as a social construction - little green men
Woolgar
No objective science facts, based on interpretation
Scientists discovered pulsars, annotated diagrams shown as little green men, recognise this was not an acceptable interpretation within the science community and decided these patterns resembled stars
