Science, Technology and Society (STS)

[01 Readings 1]

SCIENCE METHODOLOGY

In a tradition that can be traced back to John Stuart and Francis Bacon many have taken the scientific method to be inductive. An inductive
inference :

 ampliative
 nondemonstrative.

The fallibility of inductive inferences is often referred to as Hume’s problem of induction, after the philosopher David Hume.

Karl Hempel argues that the scientific method begins not with observations but with hypotheses. According to his hypothetico-deductive method
one deduces certain observational predictions from the hypothesis and then rigorously tests them further observation and experimentation.

Karl Popper insists that the scientific method is deductive, not inductive.

SCIENTIFIC REALISM vs ANTIREALISM

 Realists accept the existence of a mind-independent world, those antirealists who deny this advocate some form of idealism.
 Realists tend to be optimistic(positive thinking) about epistemic access to the world; antirealists argue in some various ways that this
optimism is unwarranted.
 Realists typically see the aim of science being truth; antirealists argue the aim is something less.

Realist views:
 Naïve realism- states that we perceive things through our senses
 Entity realism – the more u can manipulate the unobservable and produced predicted outcomes, the more believable a theory is.
 Structural realism – people do not get what they strive for (state of entity realism – anti-realism)
Antirealist views:
 Instrumentalism – need an art to move for the betterment of the society
 empiricism – experience is the source of knowledge
 Social constructivism – creating new learnings

REDUCTIONISM to THEORETICAL PLURALISM

 Reductionism – is the reduction of complex systems to simpler components

 Theoretical Pluralism- group of knowledge (tower of babel)

[01 Readings 3]

THE THREE STAGES OF HUMAN LIFE

 Prehistory
o Bronze age (between the use of stone tools, invention of writings)
o Paleolithic, Neolithic and Metal age
o No ICTs
 History
o Individual and social well-being related to ICTs
o They record and transmit data, but human societies depend on other kinds of technologies concerning primary resources
 Hyperhistory – Individual and social well-being dependent on ICTs

Towards an Hyperhistorical Environment

The living generation is experiencing a transition from history to hyperhistory. Advanced information societies are more and more heavily dependent
on ICTs for their normal functioning and growth.
Hyperhistory Encounters:
 Storage capacity (space)
  Speed of our communications (time) are lagging.
 Digital Amnesia
o 1st myth concerns the quality of digital memory.
o 2nd myth – dependability of digital memory.

Moore’s Law - over the development of digital computers, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years.

Metcalfe’s Law – it states that the value of network is proportional to the square of a number of connected nodes of the system.

[01 Readings 4]

 The early Filipinos learned to make metal tools and implements – copper, gold, bronze, and later, iron.
 By the first century, A.D., Filipinos were weaving cotton, smelting iron, making pottery and glass ornaments and were also engaged in
agriculture.
 Filipinos had also learned to build boats for the coastal trade. By the tenth century A.D., this had become a highly developed technology.
o The early Spanish chronicles took note of refined plank-build warship called curacao.
o The Spaniards later utilized Filipino expertise in boat-building and seamanship.
o Boat-building (what the Spaniard learned from the Filipinos)

[02 Readings 1]

REVIVAL OF ANARCHY IN ITALY (anarchy means no government)

1. The Roman cities were older and more deeply rooted than cities in Northern Europe.
2. Their position in the middle of the Mediterranean attracted trade from the richer Byzantine and Muslim civilizations in the East.
3. The Byzantine Empire, which ruled parts of Italy, protected its towns there from at least some of the chaos of the times. (Italian towns)

Asmagnates – literally “great ones “; were a new nobility that was a fusion of middle class and nobles.

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Factors that would help lead to the Rise of the Kings:

 Rising class of townsmen
 A money based economy

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THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Renaissance largely defined by four new ideas  Transition from medieval top modern civilization.

 Secularism – belief this world and life are worth studying and living for now, not just as preparation for afterlife.
 Humanism – belief that humans are not helpless pawns in the divine plans, but capable of their own great accomplishments.
 Individualism – belief that the individual alone, not just groups of people (e.g., guild), can accomplish great things on their own.
 – belief in the need to challenge accepted authorities’ views.( doubt as truth of something)

Renaissance literally means rebirth.

NEW PATTERNS OF THOUGHT

Whether one sees Renaissance as a period of originality or just drawing upon older cultures, it did generate four ideas that have been and still in
central to Western Civilization: