Science as a Gateway to Understanding International Workshop Proceedings, Tehran, Iran (2008) / Chapter Skim
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11 Science and Culture--Bernard Maitte
11 Science and Culture--Bernard Maitte
Pages 77-88
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From page 77... ...
As science launches into an ever more detailed exploration of the infinitely small, so it continues to investigate the infinitely large, providing us with the means to cure and eradicate disease depleting the planet's resources and irreversibly damaging the environment. The remarkable advances made in biology have not only resulted in healthier births and babies, but have also been instrumental in fostering experiments on embryos, clones, and genetically modified organisms.
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From page 78... ...
• Culture as the intellectual product of an era: scientific activity is highly intellectual, but it is also extremely compartmentalized within narrow disciplines. Researchers must remain current in their areas of expertise, but often are unaware of the historical theories and concepts behind their modern science; they delay exploring underlying meanings to a later date.
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From page 79... ...
MODERN SCIENCE ITS FOUNDING FATHERS Ancient and medieval science was indistinguishable from philosophy. It aimed to promote global understanding of the universe regardless of application and practical utility, and it attempted to articulate an intellectual impression of the natural world.
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From page 80... ...
At the time, Galileo and several of his contemporaries believed that the world is written in mathematical language, and they began to develop theories of modern science that borrowed substantially from Islamic science. In a world too complex to be studied as a whole, Islamic science isolated facts and discarded conditions considered to be superfluous, thereby reducing the properties of reality.
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From page 81... ...
They may postpone the search for underlying factors until later, unaware of all historical developments relating to their own discipline and where their most recent work fits in. Contemporary scientific practice therefore may be forgetful, with the projects developed by the founding fathers of modern science having reached their limits.
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From page 82... ...
Scientific rationality was always fed by technical imperialism that provided the principles of order and economy, with technological rationality arising from observation, trial, error, modification, and dexterity. All the while it remained highly dependent on the tool's place in society, which developed into ingenious combinations to address the deep-rooted needs in human society.
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From page 83... ...
" These are the words of people who take the time to think about where they are going, who go against the aims inherent in the introduction of technologies, and who instead adapt them to projects that they themselves fashion for their happiness. Shouldn't we take the time to transform the technological object into a technical tool, which implies adapting and transferring our human experience?
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From page 84... ...
In its current form, science teaching has both unquestionable strengths and manifest weaknesses. Its strengths include training in the use of concrete knowledge, providing specialized knowledge, and grounding in disciplinary expertise.
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From page 85... ...
I have a dream of a teaching approach that would be formed via the exercise of scientific thinking, fervent thinking that observes, builds hypotheses, tests hypotheses, gives up, tries again, takes risks, invalidates, confirms its theories, and questions itself. In other words, we need thinking that provides us with access to partial representations of the world, as we can never exhaust reality, and opens up other ways to access nature, other kinds of thinking and action that are nonetheless relevant representations developed between the limits of validity that we are able to define.
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From page 86... ...
As I said earlier, this requires long training, constant effort and the perseverance of the education system. Popularization utilizes communication techniques that attempt to illustrate and that use analogies, metaphors, and models, producing somewhat distorted visions as a result of the selfrepresentations of the people being addressed.
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From page 87... ...
However, the effectiveness of contempo rary science masks, sidelines, and undermines the work required to develop true understanding. Education based on disciplinary knowledge needs to teach how the results obtained by science can be used and contribute to taking further the question, "What does it mean?
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