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1.  Introduction, Orientation.
  

Fri., Sept. 6

Science and technology studies (STS); component disciplines and approaches. Interrelation of
science, technology, society, and values.
What questions does this approach answer?

 

2.  Science - A Cult of Creativity? A Moral Model? A Social System? A Source of Values?
    

Mon., Sept. 9

Creativity in art and science.  Origins of scientific ideas.  Do scientists invent or discover?  Does science instill a higher moral sensitivity?  What human values are most consonant with science?  How might science contribute to ethics? 

Bronowski, 
Chapters 1- 3.

 


3.  Philosophy of Science: Is there a "Scientific Method"? How do we know what we know? 
     What assumptions do we make about the ultimate nature of reality?
    

Wed., Sept. 11

What different types of scientific "method" are
there? What makes a science "science" -
Experiment? Observation? The (il)logic of "proof."
Falsification. The problem of induction. Cause.

 
Bauer "So-called" 25-37; 
Conant "No Method" 206-7;
Popper "Refutations" 81-86; 
Black "Induction"154-161; 
Brody "New Riddle"216-18; 
McMullin "Positivism" 229-237; 
Troxell/Snyder "Causes" 242-247
Fri., Sept. 13 

Inseparability of method and metaphysics. The
Primer Syndrome - simplicity/complexity. Reductionism, holism. Why do we trust scientific explanation? Discovery, verifiability, justification. 

Hempel "Method" 193-205;
Martin "Explanation" 257-264;
Hospers "Explanation?" 265-274;            
Root-Bernstein "Discovery" 108-118

 

4. Sociology of Science - How is science structured socially? How did science change in moving from 
    little science to Big Science? Is there much place left for the lone scientist?

Mon., Sept. 16

What are the norms and values of the scientific
community? What social institutions embody or support science? What practices challenge established norms? [Lecture - discussion]

 Sayre "Making a Discovery" 124-131

 Wed., Sept. 18

How did science and research practice change in moving from little science to Big Science?
Science as profession. "Technoscience." The End of Science? [Lecture - Discussion]

 

5. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: An Influential Model. 
    Scientific Knowledge as Social Construction

Scientific "progress" as non-linear, non- cumulative, and socially constructed. Paradigms,
normal science, crises, and revolutions. The jigsaw puzzle model of science. Objectivity.
Relativism.
 

 Fri., Sept. 20

 Kuhn, Preface, 1-110 (paradigm, normal science, anomalies, crisis, revolution)

 Mon., Sept. 23

Kuhn, 111-210, (revolution; resolution, incommensurability, "progress," postscript)

 

6. Science - A Separate Culture?
    

Wed., Sept. 25

What does it mean to be a research professional? A woman in science? What different kinds of research organization and methods are practiced?

Goodfield, An Imagined World. (entire)

Fri., Sept. 27

Do the two cultures exist? Need they? Is their separation harmful? What are the "Science
Wars"?

Bronowski, Chapter 4: "The Abacus and the Rose";

EXERCISE #1: Read Gross and Levitt The Higher Superstition, 1-15; 71-106; 234-257, and write a one page position paper on it for discussion as a current example of the Two Cultures.

 

7.  What do we really need to know about science and how it works?
    

Mon., Sept. 30

 

Case Studies I : Golem, Ch. 1-3

Mon. Oct. 2

 

Case Studies II : Golem, Ch. 4-7
 
8.  Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems
    

Fri., Oct. 4

Ethics and Social Responsibility
What is, has been, and should be the relationship between ethics and science? Can ethics survive modern science? In the light of what we think we know, how ought we to behave?

Excerpts on Ethics

Mon., Oct. 7

Ethical Issues. What about fraud in scientific research? Can scientific research be objective and unbiased? Is scientific knowledge neutral?

FIRST PAPER: Reporting Science to the Public

 

9.  Thinking about Technology
        

Wed., Oct. 9

What technology "is", how and why it changes and a brief social history of its development and diffusion.

Volti, Chapters 1-5 (3-85)
Fri., Oct. 11 Different Ways to Think about Technology

 Teich, pp 1-49 [Marx, Postman, Hughes, [Weinberg, Berry]
------------------------- FALL READING PERIOD ---------------------------
Wed., Oct. 16 More Ways to Think about Technology Teich, pp 50-80 [Mesthene, McDermott, Florman]

 

10.  Philosophy of Technology
  

Fri., Oct. 18 

An introduction.

Winner, Chapters 1-3 (56 pp)

 

Review and Consolidation
    

Mon., Oct. 21

 
Hour Exam

 

11. What do we really need to know about technology? How does technology really work?
    
Wed., Oct 23

The Golem at Large
Fri., Oct. 25 The Golem at Large

 

12. Communication
      

Mon., Oct. 28

Volti, Part 4 (pp 181-215)

 

13. Transformation of Work
  

Wed., Oct. 30

Is Technology Autonomous?  What can individuals, institutions, governments do?

Volti, Part 3 (pp 129-175)
Teich, Zuboff, Jenkins [294-301; 121-136]

 

14. Biomedicine, Public Health, and Ethical Dilemmas
    
Fri., Nov. 1 What is all this health for? What limits ought there to be on biomedical technology, if any?

Teich, Weinberg, Charo, Kass: [213-255]
Morison, "Visions"
Volti, Ch. 7 (pp. 107-123)

Mon., Nov. 4 

Public Health, Risk, and Medical Ethics
Continuing discussion; no reading assigned
SECOND PAPER: Technological Literacy

 

 

15. The Control of Technology
    

Wed., Nov. 6

Is Technology Autonomous? What can individuals, institutions, governments do?

Volti, Chs. 15-17, (pp 265-308)
Teich, Sclove [pp. 103-120]

Fri., Nov. 8

Is there any hope in technology assessment?

Teich, Cerruzzi, Kahn and Wiener; Brody;
Cerruzzi; Coates, Mahaffie, and Hines [169-212]

 

 
16. Appropriate Technology - The Lure of Decentralization
    

Mon., Nov. 11

Is there a better way to integrate technology with society?

Teich, Schumacher, Goodman, Wajcman
[pp. 81-102; 137-149] Exemplar from Kerala [Franke/Chasin]

Wed., Nov. 13

Questioning Appropriate Technology and Decentralization

Winner, Chs. 4,5 (61-97)
EXERCISE #3 Due: Terms and Phrases in STS

 

 

17. Computer Technology
    

Fri., Nov. 15

 Revolution? or "Mythinformation"?
Should the "computer society" be X-rated

Winner, Ch. 6 (98-117)
Teich, Negroponte, Norman [303-336]
Coyle, "ACCESS", Postman, "Informing"
Mon., Nov. 18 Computers, Ethics and Privacy Teich, Morrison and Forester; Cate [259-293]
Examples and Scenarios [from Packet, "et al"]

 

18. The Fate of Nature in a Technological World
    

Wed., Nov. 20

Is Western technology antithetical to nature? 

Winner, Ch. 7 (121-137)
White, " Historical Roots of Ecological Crisis"
Volti, Ch.6 (pp. 88-104)
Fri., Nov. 22 Are Deep Ecology, Recycling, and Environmentalism Overdone? Tierney, "Recycling"
Gross/Levitt, 149-178; 227-228; 231-233

 

19. Living With "Risk"
    

Mon., Nov. 25

Winner, Ch. 8 (138-154)
Teich, Morone and Woodhouse [132-156]
Allman, "Staying Alive"

 

------------------------------------------ THANKSGIVING ----------------------------------------

 

20. Science, Technology, and Human Values - or is it Embarrassment?
       Technology and Politics, Now and Future

Mon., Dec. 2
 

Winner, Ch. 9 (155-163), Ch. 10 (164-178)
Looking at STS.

 

21. STS: Retrospect and Prospect
Wed., Dec. 4 

HOUR EXAM
 

Fri., Dec.6
 

Review; Suggestions; SCES