the status quo of science: the lack of and consequential dismissal of alternative approaches to...
DESCRIPTION
I argue that the sciences would wear a different face if the playing field was more balanced with Gender Equality and Minority Equality. An expansion of alternative thought would exist with greater ethnic diversity extracted from the human population. Greater diversity would cause a shift in ideology. Regardless of the Scientific Method, people would bring to the field their core beliefs and these beliefs would influence the shaping of scientific disciplines.TRANSCRIPT
The Status Quo of Science:
The lack of and consequential dismissal of alternative approaches to
thinking and reasoning within the sciences.
Evelyn Fox Keller. “Gender and Science: An Update.”
Even with the assistance of the educational system and the Federal Government, women who pursue careers in the sciences and who remain in the sciences are relatively few.
Considering this fact, would science wear a different face today if the playing field was more balanced?
Science Being Defined by a Late-Modern, Northern European
Male Mindset
The current problem is that science is predominantly dominated by the thinking of this particular ethic group which does not represent the entire human population.
Hence, there is a lack of alternative thought.
Alternative Conclusions Through Alternative Beliefs
Evelyn Fox Keller - “A shift in attention from the question of male & female nature to that of beliefs about male & female nature, that is ideology.”
Science dismisses the distinction between sexual identity and beliefs about sexual identity.
Alternative Conclusions Through Alternative Beliefs
“Beliefs per se cannot exert force on the world.”
“But people who carry such beliefs can.” “The language in which their beliefs are
encoded has the force to shape what others - as men, and women, and as scientists - think, believe, and, in turn, actually do.”
Net Effect on Science Itself
“Careful attention to what questions get asked, of how research programs come to be legitimated and supported, of how theoretical disputes are resolved, of ‘how experiments end’ reveals the working cultural and social norms at every stage.”
Consensus is commonly achieved, but is rarely compelled by the forces of logic and evidence alone.
Shirley M. Tilghman. “Science versus the Female Scientist.”
“When questioned about their (young women) experiences as science majors, women at coed colleges complain of feelings of isolation in a large class of males, of being ignored by faculty and of not being taken seriously. Women who began college well-qualified and strongly motivated lose their self-esteem.”
Two Points Come to Mind: The experience of an aspiring female civil
engineer. The success of women in the “Soft Sciences,” or
the “Sciences of Carbon Based Life Forms,” or “Touchy-Feely Stuff.” Biology Psychology Medicine Biomedical
Alexander Calandra. “Angels on a Pin.”
The forcing of “Conventional Thinking” enforces “Conventional Solutions”versus the nurturing of “Creative Thinking” which leads to “Creative Solutions.”
Case in Point: Alternative methods of measuring the height of
a building with a barometer.
Abstracted from the following:
MacKenzie, Nancy R. (1995). Science and Technology Today: Readings for Writers (pp 38-70). New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.