Tag Archives: age of enlightenment

Science as a Social Construction

In order to understand the differences and similarities of social versus cultural construction and to apply this to the field of science, we should first investigate the terms and understand the definitions of each. At center, we have “science”. Merriam-Webster (2009) defines science as “knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths [which can be] tested” in specific manner. For ease of transition, I will keep it simply as “knowledge”. Next is construction. Construction is defined, in this context, as “the act or result of construing, interpreting, or explaining”. Thus far, we have an act of interpreting or explaining knowledge, but is this construed socially, culturally or both? Hall (1994) delineates social and cultural abstracts, “[Culture] is threaded through all social practices, and is the sum of their interrelationship.” (p. 523) More generally speaking, society builds culture. As interrelated as these terms are, one can only posit that if a construct is social, then it must also be cultural. The inverse should also hold true.

Science, in one form or another, has been around since mankind perfected the first thing that was perfected. I do not feel that it is important to know what it was that we first perfected, but that we eventually perfected some kind of act or skill and sought to learn more. This want for knowledge, I will say would be the birth of science. From this time forward, I would argue that science was deeply social and cultural. The welfare of societies depended on the science of the time. Until the Age of Enlightenment, it did not matter if the knowledge was fully understood. “Enlightenment thinkers placed a great premium on the discovery of truth through the observation of nature, rather than through the study of authoritative sources, such as Aristotle and the Bible” (“Age of Enlightenment,” 2009). This was a time that mysticism and magic were set aside for experimentation and the scientific method. It is my opinion that, after the Age of Enlightenment, science became less socially or culturally oriented, though the impact was no less dramatic. It is this separation of emotion, the suspension of belief, that drives a true search for scientific fact.

References

Age of Enlightenment. (2009). In Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 10, 2009, from http://encarta.msn.com

Construction. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/construction

Hall, S. (1994). Cultural studies: Two paradigms. In N. B. Dirks, G. Eley & S. B. Ortner (Eds.), Culture/power/history: a reader in contemporary social theory (pp. 520-538). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Science. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science