| Class: | M 6:00-9:00 PM in Clow 137 |
| Instructor: | Dennis Rioux (rioux@uwosh.edu) |
| Content: | This segment of the seminar explores the divergent views people possess about the nature of science. Does science uncover universal truths about the world we inhabit? Or is science merely one more frame of reference from which the world is viewed? Questions like these are central to the so-called science wars that tend to put postmodernists and scientists at odds with each other. We will begin with a discussion of the so-called "two cultures" phenomenon that was posited by C.P. Snow to exist between the humanities and the sciences. We will then explore how some postmodern theorists have combined philosophies of science and results from science itself to create models of science and its truths as a sociological constructs. The Sokal Hoax, an (in)famous event in the science wars, is the focus of our third week. Finally, we conclude with a look at the goals of scientists and what scientific truth means to them. |
| Syllabus | Writing Assignments | 1 | Reading Guides | 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| 3 | 3 | |||||||||
| 4 |