1 / 11

Science as Representation (of Nature and Society)

Science as Representation (of Nature and Society). Two meanings of representation: Make a picture, image, diagram, or model Speak for, stand in for Questions about scientific representation How do we know what we (think we) know? How do we tell true from false (scientific) knowledge?

aysel
Download Presentation

Science as Representation (of Nature and Society)

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Science as Representation (of Nature and Society) • Two meanings of representation: • Make a picture, image, diagram, or model • Speak for, stand in for • Questions about scientific representation • How do we know what we (think we) know? • How do we tell true from false (scientific) knowledge? • How, in cases of doubt and uncertainty, do we tell better knowledge from worse knowledge? ESPP-78

  2. The Illusion(s) of Empiricism: Knowing and Seeing ESPP-78

  3. Interpretive Flexibility • The Rashomon effect (based on 1950 Kurasawa film) • Same signals are interpreted in different ways by different viewers • Reasons: • Standpoint (e.g., social position) • Prior framings (e.g., historical experience) • Strategic interests (e.g., political motives) ESPP-78

  4. Social Construction of Science • What does it mean to say that scientific knowledge is “(socially) constructed”? • Science is a human, social, political activity • Science tries to reduce the interpretive flexibility of nature • Science is carried out according to conventions about: • What questions are important (health, ecology) • What can be feasibly investigated (low doses, synergies) • How should these questions be investigated (methods) • What counts as valid knowledge and what does not (use of simulations and scenarios, historical data, lay knowledge) ESPP-78

  5. Where does evidence of “construction” come from? • Histories of science • Ideas of Ludwik Fleck and Thomas Kuhn • Thought collectives; paradigms • Sociology and anthropology of science • The “strong programme” of David Bloor: • see what scientists do, not what they say; • don’t take truth for granted; • use “symmetrical” explanations • Events in the world • controversies, accidents, surprises, failed predictions ESPP-78

  6. Reducing Interpretive Flexibility When Science Meets Policy • How is interpretive flexibility reduced in policy environments? • What is speeding, and how do we know it? • What is pollution and how do we know it? • What is climate change, and how do we know it? • What is anthropogenic climate change, and how do we know it? ESPP-78

  7. Mauna Loa Measurements:An Unambiguous Signal? ESPP-78

  8. Frame Shift: The Hockey Stick ESPP-78

  9. Complicating the Curve: More Data, Less Clarity? ESPP-78

  10. Common Misunderstandings about Social Construction • Relativist fallacies: • “Anything goes”: no; all scientific accounts have to accommodate observed phenomena • “There is no external reality”: no; rather, our perceptions of reality are socially mediated • “Any knowledge as good as any other”: no; there are conventions about goodness in science • “All science is political”: maybe; but how? ESPP-78

  11. How Models Construct the World • What causal understandings are built into a model? • E.g., Climate change is anthropogenic, not caused by sunspots or random temperature fluctuations • Which parameters are important? • E.g., Climate variation is related to carbon emissions from human activities such as car use, deforestation • What methods are used to test those parameters? • E.g., Instruments, simulations, “ground truthing” of satellite data, historical records, lay experience ESPP-78

More Related