The So-Called Science Wars And Sociological Gravitas

For two decades, disparagement of science has been among the products of an emerging academic multidiscipline-"science studies," or "sci-tech-studies" (STS) as it's known in the United States. Only recently has serious notice been taken, by a few scientists and other scholars, of the phenomenon. The general agreements and normal academic food-fights within STS have received little outside attention. Not all STS participants, by any means, disparage science. Good work is being done in the social study of science. Still, there is a major strain of antiscience in STS, although it can come-as it has since the 17th century-from other, more worrisome, sources. In any case, some of the most influential STS practitioners do belittle science and scientists. Their program is to show that science is not all it's cracked up to be, that it has an ugly side, that science is just one more "social myth" (as philosopher Mary Hesse ...