STS-UY 2004 Science, Technology, and Society
Study questions for [GS] Chapter 8: Sociology of Science: Merton.
1. What are the four norms of science, according to Mertonian sociology of science?
2. How does the reward system function in science?
3. Descri
12. Technological Determinism
1. Is Technology Applied Science?
The linear model of innovation
Basic
research
Vannevar Bush
(1890-1974)
Applied
research
Godin, B. (2006) 'The Linear Model of Innovation',
Science, Technology, & Human Values 31, 63967.
Deve
13. Laboratories
Latour & Woolgar's (1979) Laboratory Life:
"Since the turn of the century, scores of men and women have
penetrated deep forests, lived in hostile climates, and
weathered hostility, boredom, and disease in order to gather
the remnants of
09. Sociology of Science
1. Mertonian Sociology of Science
(Robert Merton 1940's)
Function of science is to produce knowledge.
Accomplishes this by enforcing institutional norms.
Robert Merton
(1910-2003)
Norms = The rules that a group uses for appropr
01. Science, Technology, and Society
Big Questions:
What is science?
How does it differ (if at all) from technology?
How does it differ from other ways of describing the world?
What is/should be its relation to society?
These are Important Questions!
05. Kuhn: Paradigms and Immature Science
A. Paradigms
Paradigm (broad sense): a package of ideas and methods which
make up a view of the world and a way of doing science.
Thomas Kuhn
(1922-1996)
Paradigm (narrow sense): a collection of examples or exempla
04. Popper: Conjecture and Refutation
Demarcation Problem
How is science demarcated from pseudo-science?
Sir Karl Popper
(1902-1994)
vs
Falsificationism: A hypothesis is scientific if and only if it
has the potential to be refuted by some possible observ
STS-UY 2004 Science, Technology, and Society
Study questions for [MS] Chaps 1-2.
Introduction
1. What is Whig History?
2. What is the "long 19th century"?
3. How do Marsden and Smith define interpretive flexibility?
Chapter 1
4. What were some cultural va
10. Actor-Network-Theory (ANT)
Technoscience = view of science and technology
as involving the same types of processes.
Claim: There is no distinction in kind
between "discovery" and "invention".
Traditional view:
Galileo "discovered"
the phases of Venus
16. Science and the Public Sphere
1. Science Popularization
What are the sources of scientific and technical authority?
STS claims:
- Scientific knowledge does not simply reflect nature.
- Scientific knowledge does not arrive from nature as the result
of
06. Kuhn: Normal Science
1. The Nature of Normal Science
Paradigms gain status by being able to solve a particular set of problems or
promise success at solving problems.
Focus of attention on small range of problems allows detailed and in-depth
investi
18. Engineering Empires: Chaps 34
1. Belief in Steamers
Was iron steamship technology inevitable in the 19th century?
- Standard accounts: Yes! Iron and steam's success produced a revolution
in shipping with major consequences for 19th European empires.
17. Engineering Empires: Chaps 12
1. Cultural History of Technology
Whig history
".the history of the winning side, valuing the past only where
it matches, or approaches, the present, and all but ignoring
the 'failures', 'dead-ends' or paths not taken, ex
19. Engineering Empires: Chap 5, Conclusion
1. "The most gigantic electrical experiment"
"In this chapter, our interest is in the 'reputation' of the telegraph, as
much as in the reputation of its advocates; that is, we want to understand
the simultaneous
STS-UY 2004 Science, Technology, and Society
Paper #3. Due Tues Dec 15.
The goal of this paper is to produce a second STS analysis of the technological system you studied in
Paper #2. This time you must chose a different STS approach than the one you used
STS-UY 2004 Science, Technology, and Society
Paper #2. Due Thurs Nov. 19.
General Instructions:
(a) Respond to the following in an essay of no less than 5 pages and no more than 7 pages. Your essay
should be typed, 10- or 12-point, double-spaced and spell
14. Controversies, Objectivity, Rhetoric
1. Controversy Studies
Central question: How are debates in science resolved?
View I: Competing hypotheses are made to face crucial tests
(experiments). The results of such tests are objective data that
provide th
15. Scientific Realism and Scientific Explanation
1. Scientific Realism
What does the world consist of?
- electrons, chemical elements, genes, etc.
Was the world of one thousand years ago a
world of electrons, genes, etc.?
- Scientific realist: Yes, alt
03. Induction and Confirmation
Topic: Relation between theory and evidence.
1. Induction
Problem of Induction: What reason do we have
for thinking the future will resemble the past?
David Hume
(1711-1776)
- Initial Response: In the past, the future has re
STS-UY 2004 Science, Technology, and Society
Study questions for [S] Chaps 13-14: Rhetoric and Objectivity.
Chapter 13. Rhetoric and Discourse
1. According to Plato, what is the difference between rhetoric and dialectic?
2. Accoring to Latour and Woolgar,
04. Popper: Conjecture and Refutation
04.
Demarcation Problem
How is science demarcated from pseudo-science?
vs
Falsificationism: A hypothesis is scientific if and only if it has the potential
to be refuted by some possible observation.
A scientific hy
STS2003-Science, Technology and Society
Study questions for Newman Introduction.
1. According to Newman, what role did alchemy play for corpuscular theories of matter during
the Scientific Revolution?
2. How was material change explained at the beginning
STS2003-Science, Technology, and Society
Study questions for GS-Chapter 1
1. What does empiricism claim?
2. Describe the view of science that empiricism subscribes to.
3. What is the relation between mathematics and science according to Galileo?
4. How ca
02. Logic and Empiricism
1. Classical Empiricism
(Locke, Berkeley, Hume ~1700's)
Claim: The only source of knowledge of the external world is experience.
Sensationalism: Experience of the external world consists of pre-structured
sense data impinging on
STS2003 - Science, Technology, and Society
Study questions for GS-Chapter 5: Kuhn and Normal Science.
1. What is a paradigm, according to a "broad sense"?
2. What is a paradigm, according to a "narrow sense"?
3. What are some characteristics of "normal sc
03. Induction and Confirmation
03.
Topic: Relation between theory and evidence.
1. Induction
Problem of Induction
(Hume 1739)
What reason do we have for thinking the future will resemble the past?
Initial Response: In the past, the future has resembled
STS2003 - Science, Technology, and Society
Study questions for GS-Chapter 3: Induction and Confirmation
1. What is the problem of induction?
2. Why is appealing to past experience an inadequate way to justify induction?
3. What characterizes a deductive a
STS2003 - Science, Technology, and Society
Study questions for GS-Chapter 8: The Challenge from Sociology of Science
1. What are the four norms of science, according to Mertonian sociology of science?
2. How does the reward system function in science?
3.
STS2003 - Science, Technology, and Society
Study questions for K-Chaps III-V, Postscript Sections 2 & 3.
Chap III
1. How do paradigms gain their status?
2. In what sense is normal science made up of "mopping-up" operations?
3. What is one type of fact-gat
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