Advancements in computing, instrumentation, robotics, digital
imaging, and simulation modeling have changed science into a
technology-driven institution. Government, industry, and society
increasingly exert their influence over science, raising questions
of values and objectivity. These and other profound changes have
led many to speculate that we are in the midst of an epochal break
in scientific history.
This edited volume presents an in-depth examination of these
issues from philosophical, historical, social, and cultural
perspectives. It offers arguments both for and against the epochal
break thesis in light of historical antecedents. Contributors
discuss topics such as: science as a continuing epistemological
enterprise; the decline of the individual scientist and the rise of
communities; the intertwining of scientific and technological
needs; links to prior practices and ways of thinking; the alleged
divide between mode-1 and mode-2 research methods; the
commodification of university science; and the shift from the
scientific to a technological enterprise. Additionally, they
examine the epochal break thesis using specific examples, including
the transition from laboratory to real world experiments; the
increased reliance on computer imaging; how analog and digital
technologies condition behaviors that shape the object and
beholder; the cultural significance of humanoid robots; the erosion
of scientific quality in experimentation; and the effect of
computers on prediction at the expense of explanation.
Whether these events represent a historic break in scientific
theory, practice, and methodology is disputed. What they do offer
is an important occasion for philosophical analysis of the
epistemic, institutional and moral questions affecting current and
future scientific pursuits.
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