how is science society and technology related
Science and technology study (STS) or scientotechnological studies is the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these in turn affect society, politics, and culture.
Science and Technology
One important non-local pattern, which has emerged at least since the second half of the last century, concerns the ever closer relationships between science and technology. Moreover, the resulting “technoscience” has been shaping, and will continue to shape, our material, personal, social, and cultural realities in substantial ways.
These developments have undermined the popular contrast between science as aiming at the truth and technology as aiming at socially useful applications. Therefore, the philosophical studies presented in this book do not presuppose strong divides between science and technology, or between epistemic and social issues. More in particular, much attention is given to experimentation, which can be considered as an important link between scientific and technological practice.
Naturalism and Normativism. In recent philosophy of science and epistemology, the claims of traditional, normative approaches have been severely challenged by naturalist critics. Roughly, the former presuppose that we more or less know what science is and that it is the philosopher’s task to supply its correct, a priori justification. The latter insist that we still have to find out what science is and that a scientific, instead of a normative, approach is the best or the only way to do so.
I agree with the naturalists that philosophers cannot presuppose a sufficient knowledge of what science is. Therefore, many of the analyses and arguments in this book involve or build on detailed studies of the practices, processes, and products of science.
However, the naturalist claim that only science can provide such studies will be shown to be both obscure and false. Moreover, if it is not assumed that normative claims should be a priori justifiable, there is no reason at all why philosophical evaluations, critiques, and recommendations should be ruled out in advance.
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