Theories of Science

1
Theories of Science

• 2. From Science to Technoscience
• A Historical Overview

2
A Brief History of Science

• Ancient, or Traditional science, up to about 1600
  
• philosophical, spritual knowledge
• distinctive regional modes
• gap between theory and practice
• Modern, or Western science, from about 1600 to
  1970
• instrumental, rational knowledge
• one universal system of disciplines
• functional differentiation of theory and practice
• Global, or Technoscience, from about 1970
• situated, pluralist notion of knowledge sciences
• organized in transdisciplinary networks
• integration of theory and practice

3
What was science in antiquity?

• A part of society (macro level)
• primarily used for purposes of conquest
• expert advice to imperial authorities
• a culture of wise men
• Institutional systems (meso level)
• largely informal education and research systems
• linked to infrastructural maintenance/management
• Forms of knowledge (micro level)
• (theo)logical theories
• embodied, artisanal practical knowledge
• personalized ethical-religious wisdom

4
What was science in the 17th century?

• A part of society
• oriented toward mining, navigation, warfare
• part of the formation of the nation state
• an emerging ideology for a new class
• Institutional systems
• academies of science, state laboratories
• trade and commerce (e.g. East India companies)
• Forms of knowledge
• analytical and mathematical theories
• experimental and observational practices
• utilitarian ethics (the protestant ethic)

5
What is (techno)science today?

• A part of society
• direct productive and destructive - force
• basic administrative tools
• dominant ideology, or cultural belief
• Institutional systems
• integration of research and education
• symbiosis of technology and science
• Forms of knowledge
• complex and diverse theories
• hybrid, collaborative forms of practice
• ethical relativism and pluralism

6
The Making of Modern Science

• From movements to institutions
• reform of society reform of philosophy
• visionary, utopian realistic, pragmatic
• decentralized organization (central) academy
• technical improvements scientific development
• informal communication formal publication

7
Science and Industrialization

• International dissemination
• Professional societies
• Disciplinary identities
• New scientific universities
• Research laboratories in education and industry
• science as a vocation (Max Weber)

8
Long Waves of Industrialization
Capitalism

Mechanization steam engine
Imperialism
Scientification
electricity
atomic energy
railroads




1900
1850
1950
2000
1800
geology political economy history
biochemistry sociology geography
genetics atomic physics anthropology
technosciences environmentalism




Changes in Science

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The Making of Technoscience

• Mass production (Fordism)
• Scientific management (Taylorism)
• Research as business (Edison, Dupont)
• Technocratic, or rationalization movements
• State economic planning (Keynesianism)
• The new industrial state (Galbraith)

10
From Little Science to Big Science

• change in size and scale
• mission orientation
• external sponsorship
• new norm, or value system
• new role for the state (science policy)

11
Critiques of Modern Science

• neo-romantic
• moral, or cultural critique
• against scientistic hubris, for hybridity
• environmental
• scientific, internal critique
• against reductionism, for complexity
• feminist
• social, institutional critique
• against masculinity, for empathy

12
The Storylines of Technoscience

• Economic (stories of natural-technical sciences)
• Focus on products, facts and artefacts
• Science as innovation, profitable ideas
• Social (stories of social sciences)
• Focus on actors, agents
• Science as construction, entrepreneurship
• Culture (stories of cultural sciences)
• Focus on arenas, users
• Science as appropriation, meaning