NATS 1760 (B): Science, Technology and Society 2016-17 York University, Division of Natural Science, Faculty of Science ACW 109 Tuesdays 4:30-7:20 Instructor: Professor Hélène Mialet E-mail: Note: no “s” after “nat” Website: Main Office: Rm. 218, Bethune College Mialet’s Office: Rm. 310, Bethune College Office hours: Wednesday, 10-12. Anthropologists have studied tribes from all over the world, classified the most exotic customs, taken pictures of and documented familial relationships and the most complex cults, they have described art, rituals and popular traditions, but what about what we believe to be our most reliable and efficacious source of knowledge: Science? In this class, we will question what constitutes the basis of “our modernity” by trying to understand how science is done—its dynamics, its organization, and how it penetrates our social fabric and transforms it. We will begin by briefly studying the philosophers of science upon which much of the sociology and anthropology of science is based. Then, we will analyze what sociologists of science say about the functioning of scientific institutions. Afterwards, we will examine how historians and sociologists (through the study of scientific controversies) and anthropologists (through the ethnographic study of laboratories) have analyzed the processes by which “scientific truth” is produced. From here we will turn our attention to the representational practices—as well as the skills, gestures, instruments and genders of those—that make science. We will then examine the ways in which the design and use of technology (and artifacts themselves) embody important social assumptions. Are technologies, for example, gendered? What roles do users play in technological development? What is an appropriate or ethical use of technology and what is
NATS 1760 (B): Science, Technology and Society 2016-17 York University, Division of Natural Science, Faculty of Science ACW 109 Tuesdays 4:30-7:20 Instructor: Professor Hélène Mialet E-mail: Note: no “s” after “nat” Website: Main Office: Rm. 218, Bethune College Mialet’s Office: Rm. 310, Bethune College Office hours: Wednesday, 10-12. Anthropologists have studied tribes from all over the world, classified the most exotic customs, taken pictures of and documented familial relationships and the most complex cults, they have described art, rituals and popular traditions, but what about what we believe to be our most reliable and efficacious source of knowledge: Science? In this class, we will question what constitutes the basis of “our modernity” by trying to understand how science is done—its dynamics, its organization, and how it penetrates our social fabric and transforms it. We will begin by briefly studying the philosophers of science upon which much of the sociology and anthropology of science is based. Then, we will analyze what sociologists of science say about the functioning of scientific institutions. Afterwards, we will examine how historians and sociologists (through the study of scientific controversies) and anthropologists (through the ethnographic study of laboratories) have analyzed the processes by which “scientific truth” is produced. From here we will turn our attention to the representational practices—as well as the skills, gestures, instruments and genders of those—that make science. We will then examine the ways in which the design and use of technology (and artifacts themselves) embody important social assumptions. Are technologies, for example, gendered? What roles do users play in technological development? What is an appropriate or ethical use of technology and what is
Syllabus-Nats-1760b-FV.docx