{"title":"Between Understanding and Control: Science as a Cultural Product","authors":"Flavio Del Santo","doi":"10.1007/s10699-024-09960-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Since the early days of humankind, people have been asking questions about Nature of two kinds: why did that happen? And how can that be used? In a broad sense, science was born that day. We show indeed that science has two complementary and interdependent souls that aim, respectively, to how to understand and how to control Nature. Through a broad historical analysis, this essay aims to (1) give an account of the development of science as an oscillation and an interplay between its two intrinsic natures, (2) demonstrate that this happened already in ancient times starting from the 6th century BC, and (3) the fact that in different periods one of the two natures was largely favored over the other is a consequence of science being a cultural product of the different social-historical contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":55146,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Science","volume":"190 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Foundations of Science","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-024-09960-1","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Since the early days of humankind, people have been asking questions about Nature of two kinds: why did that happen? And how can that be used? In a broad sense, science was born that day. We show indeed that science has two complementary and interdependent souls that aim, respectively, to how to understand and how to control Nature. Through a broad historical analysis, this essay aims to (1) give an account of the development of science as an oscillation and an interplay between its two intrinsic natures, (2) demonstrate that this happened already in ancient times starting from the 6th century BC, and (3) the fact that in different periods one of the two natures was largely favored over the other is a consequence of science being a cultural product of the different social-historical contexts.
期刊介绍：
Foundations of Science focuses on methodological and philosophical topics of foundational significance concerning the structure and the growth of science. It serves as a forum for exchange of views and ideas among working scientists and theorists of science and it seeks to promote interdisciplinary cooperation.
Since the various scientific disciplines have become so specialized and inaccessible to workers in different areas of science, one of the goals of the journal is to present the foundational issues of science in a way that is free from unnecessary technicalities yet faithful to the scientific content. The aim of the journal is not simply to identify and highlight foundational issues and problems, but to suggest constructive solutions to the problems.
The editors of the journal admit that various sciences have approaches and methods that are peculiar to those individual sciences. However, they hold the view that important truths can be discovered about and by the sciences and that truths transcend cultural and political contexts. Although properly conducted historical and sociological inquiries can explain some aspects of the scientific enterprise, the editors believe that the central foundational questions of contemporary science can be posed and answered without recourse to sociological or historical methods.
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