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PRESENTED BY THE NATIONAL CAPITAL AREA SKEPTICS   WWW.NCAS.ORG

Feb 9 Postmodernism vs. Science vs. Fundamentalism

Saturday, February 9, 2 - 4 pm
Public & FREE

Stephen Brush, D. Phil.

National Science Foundation, Room 110
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA

Was Thomas Kuhn a social constructionist? Who won the Science Wars,
and was the victory the result of a "Trojan Horse" trick? (Think:
Stephen Colbert with a Ph.D. in physics.)

In the last quarter of the 20th century, two movements attacked
science. Postmodernism, fashionable in academic humanities
departments, inspired the doctrine of "social construction of
scientific knowledge" (hereafter "social con"), advocated by some
sociologists and historians of science. The recrudescence of religious
fundamentalism supported the revival of creationism, which opposed and
tried to expel from public schools the widely-accepted scientific
theories of biological evolution, plate tectonics, and Big Bang
cosmology. Science, still a bastion of objectivity in understanding
the world, had to fend off attacks from both the left (postmodernism)
and the right (fundamentalism).

The question of whether scientists can discover true facts about the
world that are independent of their own social environment, or whether
all their knowledge is socially constructed, was the cause of the
"Science Wars" of the 1990s.

Scientists, who strongly rejected social con, did not notice that at
least two widely-accepted scientific facts were indeed socially
constructed, as can easily be shown by looking at their history.
Moreover, there is some similarity between social con and the
Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, at least if you know
something about baseball.

Stephen Brush is a professor (emeritus) of the History of Science at
the University of Maryland, College Park. He was originally educated
as a theoretical physicist and did research on topics such as the
solidification of an electron gas ("plasma") at low temperatures and
high densities. He contributed to the Harvard Project Physics Course
for high schools, using the historical approach. He came to the
University of Maryland in 1968 to initiate a program in history of
science. His current research is a study of reasons why scientists in
different fields accept (or reject) new theories.

NSF is one block south of Ballston-Marymount University metro stop
Orange Line. For most drivers, Route 66 to Fairfax Dr. to Stuart Dr is
the easiest route. Enter NSF from the corner of 9th N and N Stuart
Streets. Room 110 is on the left before the entry guard -- you will
not need to go through NSF security. Parking is available in the
Ballston Common mall, in the NSF building, and at other area parking
lots and garages. Metered parking is also available on the surrounding
streets.