Have people seen the science debate?

Kephart, Ronald rkephart at UNF.EDU
Sat Dec 11 13:58:06 UTC 2010


On 12/11/10 12:12 AM, "Loralee Donath" <donathl at CARCOSA.NET> wrote:

> I thought the proposed change in the wording was more precise and avoided the
> nebulous question of what "science" means, who it includes.
>

See, I just don't think that the concept of science is all that "nebulous."
To me, it means simply (and maybe I'm too simple-minded to see the
complications), that there is a reality out there and the best way we have
discovered so far to describe and explain that reality (including our own
social and linguistic reality) is to rely on data and evidence; hypothesis
forming, testing, revision, and falsification; and using the hypotheses that
survive this process to construct theories (grammars) of whatever domain we
happen to be investigating.  Science is our best means of producing
synthetic propositional knowledge about the world.

And, just to get myself into even more trouble, I reject the idea of science
per se as a western, white male hegemonic narrative, in the same way that I
reject the idea that algebra was Arabic/Islamic terrorism perpetrated
against me in middle school, or that traffic lights represent
African-American hegemonic control over my driving.

Ron (Running for cover...)



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