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Science Philosophy & Social Aspects

No-Nonsense Guide to Science

by (author) Jerome Ravetz

Publisher
Between the Lines
Initial publish date
Mar 2005
Category
Philosophy & Social Aspects, General, History
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781771130639
    Publish Date
    Mar 2005
    List Price
    $12.99 USD
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781896357980
    Publish Date
    Mar 2005
    List Price
    $13.95

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Description

Science is still the great intellectual adventure, but now it is also seen as an instrument of profit, power, and privilege. Wrongly used, it might yet make the 21st century our last.To make sense of all this, we need to let go of old ideas and assumptions.

In the No-Nonsense Guide to Science, Jerome Ravetz introduces the “post-normal” way of thinking about science. We are to transcend the old simplistic ideas of perfect certainty and objectivity in science–they have failed to protect people and the environment when science has gone wrong and they have enabled flat, dogmatic teaching in our schools. We must now accept that value-loading, uncertainty, and ignorance are very real parts of science, and that citizens must participate in the policies that shape its evolution.

The book also includes a refreshing new look at the history of science, and concludes with a series of questions that anyone can use to start their own exploration of the present and future of science.

About the author