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    The document provides an overview of the fields of history of science and technology. It discusses traditional and new perspectives, including examining science as a social construction and considering gender and various explanatory factors. Key approaches covered are the social history of science, the strong programme in sociology of scientific knowledge, and the social construction of technology. The document also addresses sources used in the fields and dangers of anachronism in historical analysis.

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    The document provides an overview of the fields of history of science and technology. It discusses traditional and new perspectives, including examining science as a social construction and considering gender and various explanatory factors. Key approaches covered are the social history of science, the strong programme in sociology of scientific knowledge, and the social construction of technology. The document also addresses sources used in the fields and dangers of anachronism in historical analysis.

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    62 views9 pages

    Lecture Kallinen

    Uploaded by

    rajashekarpula
    The document provides an overview of the fields of history of science and technology. It discusses traditional and new perspectives, including examining science as a social construction and considering gender and various explanatory factors. Key approaches covered are the social history of science, the strong programme in sociology of scientific knowledge, and the social construction of technology. The document also addresses sources used in the fields and dangers of anachronism in historical analysis.

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    of 9

    History of Science and

    Technology
    Maija Kallinen: 31.10.2006
    VTT

    Histories of…
     Science
     Technology
     Medicine
     …the Humanities

     Oulu: ”History of Science and Ideas”


     Torus –network: http://torus.oulu.fi

    1
    The ”traditional” view of science

     Whewell in search for  Objectivity


    method  Rationality
     Sarton and Singer:  Intellectuality
    history of science
    important only in
    relation to modern  Misunderstandings,
    science simplifications, half-
    truths…

    History of Science

     describes and explains the birth, growth, and


    possible decay of its subjects of study
     this is done with the help of historical
    sources,
     and by using various explanatory factors

    2
    What does HoS study?
     theories and concepts
     inventions and innovation processes
     scientific methods and procedures
     instruments
     scientific institutions, science policy
     From local to global knowledge
     Identities of institutions and individual researchers
     Communication, retoric of science
     science and society
     failed inventions, frauds
     Controversies
     biographies

    ..and History of Technology


     ”machine history”
     The influence of technology on society
     Technology as an agent of change in world
    history
     Which factors have shaped development of
    technology?
     Cultural, political, economical

    3
    Sources1
     Published  Unpublished
     Monographies, articles,  Manuscripts
    scientific journals  Notebooks
     Reports, travel accounts  correspondence,
     Memoires personal archives,
     Newspapers, journals, diaries
    popular publications  Records and minutes of
    institutions, societies etc.

    1) Kragh 1987, Ch. 11.

    Explanatory factors in HoS

     Internalist vs. externalist factors


     Personal factors
     Social, cultural and political factors
     Ideologies and religious factors
     Economic factors, material resources

    4
    Explanation…
     Which aspects do need explanations?

     Which explanatory factors are the most


    important ones?

     How do we know which factors to count with?

    The Dangers of Anachronism


     Evaluation from the present point of view
     The ”Whig history”
     Formalisation, modernisation
     Coherence
     Anticipation

     There is no perfect diachronism!

    5
    New Perspectives in STS
     STS = Science and Technology studies

     Gender
     Constructivism
     Science as a construction – historiography as
    construction

    The ”Classical” Sociology of


    Science
     1950-1960´s
     Robert K. Merton 1938: Science, Technology
    and Society in Swenteenth-Centuey England
     Career structues, reward systems, research
    communities
     The correspondence theory of truth, realistic
    view of science
     Against the view: Thomas Kuhn, Paul
    Feyerabend

    6
    The ”new” Sociology of
    Science
     From 1970’s on

     Social History of Science


     SSK (Sociology of Scientific Knowledge)
     From texts to actions
     From validity to credibility

    The Strong Programme


     David Bloor 1976: Knowledge and Social
    Imagery

     Causality
     Impartiality
     Symmetry
     Reflectivity

    7
    Sosiological History of
    Science
     Steven Shapin & Simon Schaffer: Leviathan
    and the Air-Pump 1985
     Theory dependance of observations
     interests
     Underdetermination of facts
     Controversies, closure mechanisms of…
     The cycle of credibility
     Network models (Latour’s actor-network –
    theory)

    SCOT
     Scot = the Social Construction of Technology

     Thomas P. Hughes: building of technological


    systems

    8
    History of Science
    and Technology –
    what to make of it?

    Further readings
     Mika Kiikeri & Petri Ylikoski: Tiede tutkimuskohteena,
    Gaudeamus 2004
     Helge Kragh: An Introduction to the Historiography of Science,
    Cambridge UP 1987
     R.C.Olby, G.N.Cantor, e.a.(eds.): Companion to the History of
    Modern Science, Routledge 1990
     S. Jasanoff, G.E. Markle, e.a.(eds.): Handbook of Science and
    Technology Studies, SAGE 1995
     Jan Golinski: Making Natural Knowledge. Constructivism and the
    History of Science, CUP 1998
     Wiebe E. Bijker, Of Bicycles, Bakelites and Bulbs:Toward a
    Theory of Socio-Technical Change, MIT 1994??
     Thomas P.Hughes: Networks of Power. Electrification in Western
    Society 1880-1930, Baltimore1983

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