Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line Review

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Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line ReviewIn modern cultures, science holds undisputed tenure over the adjudication of knowledge and pseudo-knowledge. Given its epistemological authority, it would seem that the demarcation of the scientific domain from less credible areas of knowledge would follow a universally defined set of criteria. Not so, says Thomas Gieryn in "Cultural Boundaries of Science." To be sure, Gieryn investigates several "credibility contests" wherein precise boundaries of science are needed. In one particular case, for example, "scientific knowledge [was] empirical when contrasted with the metaphysics of religion, but it [was] theoretically abstract when contrasted with the commonsense, hands-on observations of mechanicians."(63) His subsequent case studies are meticulously researched and his arguments cogently made.
But Gieryn is no postmodern critic of the objectivity of knowledge, nor does he reduce its value to paradigmatic contingencies (a la Kuhn). He is a sociologist, not a philosopher, and is concerned only with the "cultural cartography" of science. And in this context, he has come to see concepts such as empirical, rational, and even science function "not as a set of rules for proper fact-construction, but as rhetorical tools deployed in the pursuit or defense of epistemic authority, or in efforts to deny legitimacy to rival claims."(362)Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line OverviewWhy is science so credible? Usual answers center on scientists' objective methods or their powerful instruments. In his new book, Thomas Gieryn argues that a better explanation for the cultural authority of science lies downstream, when scientific claims leave laboratories and enter courtrooms, boardrooms, and living rooms. On such occasions, we use "maps" to decide who to believe—cultural maps demarcating "science" from pseudoscience, ideology, faith, or nonsense. Gieryn looks at episodes of boundary-work: Was phrenology good science? How about cold fusion? Is social science really scientific? Is organic farming? After centuries of disputes like these, Gieryn finds no stable criteria that absolutely distinguish science from non-science. Science remains a pliable cultural space, flexibly reshaped to claim credibility for some beliefs while denying it to others. In a timely epilogue, Gieryn finds this same controversy at the heart of the raging "science wars."

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