SIX1015
Science,
Technology
and Society
Semester 2
2024/24
LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION TO
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
Dr Nurulaini Abu Shamsi Abu Shamsi
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Ice-breaking
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Lecture outline
COURSE INFO & DEFINITION BRIEF HISTORY OF WHY STUDY SCIENCE,
PROFORMA SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND
SOCIETY?
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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
A scientist
working in a
lab
• Who funds his research?
• What is he doing?
• How does he communicate
his findings to the public or
other scientists?
• Does his religion and
background influence his
research?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
DEFINITION
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SCIENCE
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Science
• Science comes from the Latin "scio"
meaning “I know."
– Scio derives from the Latin infinitive
"scire" meaning "to know.“
• “Scientia” in Latin means “knowledge”.
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Science
• Our most effective way of understanding the natural
world.
• All science involves some form of observation or
experiment, and some sort of theorizing about how to
explain the evidence collected.
• Science often provides the foundation for technological
innovation.
• Science comes from the Latin "scio" meaning “I know.”
Scio derives from the Latin infinitive "scire" meaning "to
know.“ “Scientia” in Latin means “knowledge” –
“demonstrative knowledge.”
Reference: Bridgstock, M., Burch, D., Forge, J., Laurent, J., & Lowe, I. (2000). Science, technology and society: an introduction. Cambridge University
Press.
• Science is concerned with evidence and
with theory.
• Scientific evidence often comes from
experiments
• To explain the evidence, theories are
put forward, and further evidence is
often sought, to see whether the
theory accords with additional
observations.
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Science (cont’d)
What is
Science
• The attempt to understand, explain,
and predict the world we live in
• Experiments
• General theory
• Human activity that creates and
accumulates knowledge by
directly confronting the
natural world.
• What is the aim of science?
To know the truth about the world
• How science achieves it aim?
By using a systematic scientific method 8
When did modern science begin?
Translations and
Science in transformation Early modern
earlier science in
civilizations Western Europe
What made it possible for science to acquire prestige and power in Western
Europe by the 17th century?
• Changes that created a conducive environment for the birth of science
- Translation of Greco-Arabic science and natural philosophy into Latin
- Establishment of medieval universities
- Emergence of a class of theologian-natural philosophers that encouraged
the use of Aristotelian natural philosophy in the curriculum of
universities
- Medieval natural philosophers produced hundreds of questions about
nature, the answers to which included a vast amount of scientific
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information.
The scientific revolution and the new tool of induction
• Most of the questions had multiple answers, with
no genuine way of choosing between them.
• In 16th and 17th century, new answers were proposed by
scholars who found Aristotelian answers unacceptable or
inadequate.
• From philosophical point of view, the most important
development during the Scientific Revolution was the
increasingly widespread break with the theories of Aristotle.
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Event 1: Heliocentric
vs geocentric
• Aristotelian view was the dominant
philosophical view in the Western world
prior to the scientific revolution.
Aristotle’s philosophy had been
combined with the doctrines of
Christianity to form a cosmology and
philosophy of nature (Scholasticisim)
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• Scholasticisim – described everything from the motions of the planets to
the behavior of falling boddies on the earth, the essential of which were
largely unquestioned by most western intellectuals.
• Aristotelian view –
– Geocentric Model: Aristotle believed the Earth was the center of the
universe (geocentrism), a view later challenged by Copernicus and
Galileo.
– Four Elements Theory: He proposed that all matter is made up of four
elements: earth, water, air, and fire.
– Teleology (Purpose in Nature): He argued that everything in nature has
a purpose or end goal (telos).
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• Copernican revolution: a shift in beliefs about the solar system
and the wider cosmos, from geocentrism to heliocentrism
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Heliocentric vs
geocentric
• In 1542, the astronomer Nicolas Copernicus
(1473-1543) published a book attacking the
geocentric model of universe, which placed the
stationary earth at the centre of the universe
with the planets and the sun in orbit around it.
• Geocentric astronomy, also known as Ptolemaic
astronomy after the ancient Greek astronomer
Ptolemy, lay at the heart of the Aristotelian
world-view, and had gone largely unchallenged
for 1,800 years.
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• Copernicus heliocentric is based on
mathematical and astronomical
observations.
• The heliocentrism conflicted not only with
the Aristotelian picture of the universe, it
also conflicted with the traditional
understanding of the Book of Genesis and
other Christian doctrines.
• Earth was the center of the universe and
that all heavenly bodies revolved around
the Earth
• Need to replace with a set of beliefs,
propagate new ways of thinking.
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• Indirectly, it led to the development of modern physics, through the
work of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).
• Kepler discovered that the planets do not move in circular
orbits around the sun, as Copernicus thought, but rather in
ellipses. This was his crucial ‘first law’ of planetary motion; his
second and third laws specify the speeds at which the planets
orbit the sun.
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Event 2: Francis Bacon (1561–1626) revolutionized science
by introducing a new empirical approach to knowledge.
• Among the propagandists was Francis Bacon (1561-1626) who
proposed a new method for the sciences to replace that of
Aristotle.
• He published Novum Organum to replace Aristotle’s Organon.
• Baconian method is based on two pillars: observation and
induction.
• Observation: without prejudice or preconception, write
observation statements i.e record the results of what we see,
hear, smell, of the world as we find it, or of the special
circumstances of our experiments. The more data, closer to
the truth.
• Induction: Based on the observation, universal generalisations
are made.
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• The Baconian Method:
• Rejected Aristotle’s deductive reasoning, which relied on abstract
logic rather than real-world evidence.
• Advocated for inductive reasoning, where scientists gather data
through observation and experiments before forming theories.
• Published Novum Organum (1620), laying the foundation for the
scientific method still used today.
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Event 3
• The French philosopher, mathematician and scientist Rene
Descartes (1596-1650) developed a radical new mechanical
philosophy, according to which the physical world consists
simply of inert particles of matter interacting and colliding with
one another.
An automaton of a duck, inspired by the mechanical
philosophy, created by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1739.
René Descartes had written, “I have described this earth,
and indeed this whole visible world, as a machine,” and
under the spell of the mechanistic philosophy, even
animals and the human body came to be pictured as
machines rather than living organisms. (source)
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Aristotelian/Traditional Descartes’ View (What He Impact
View Debunked/Challenged)
Objects move due to Physical world operates like a Laid foundation for
their inner nature (e.g., machine; explained by matter in mechanical physics
stones fall because they motion and mechanical laws
are “earthy”)
Scholasticism: Used Rejected Scholasticism; promoted Advanced scientific
Aristotle + theology; systematic doubt, rationalism, and reasoning and empirical
relied on authority and mathematics methods
logic over observation
The mind and body are Introduced mind-body dualism — the Influenced modern
a single entity mind (thinking) and body (material) psychology and
are separate philosophy of mind
The universe is a living, The universe is a mechanistic system Shaped modern science’s
purposeful system — nature and even animals operate mechanistic worldview
like machines
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Event 4
Isaac Newton’s (1643-1727)
masterpiece was his Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy,
published in 1687, improved
Descartes’ laws of motion and rules
of collision. Newton’s three laws of
motion and principle of universal
gravitation.
Newtonian physics provided the
framework for science for the next
200 years. The 18th and 19th
centuries both saw notable
scientific advances, particularly in
the study of chemistry, optics,
energy, thermodynamics, and
electromagnetism.
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TECHNOLOGY
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Technology
• Greek word “techne” = "craft, art, skill
or the way a thing is gained/ tool“;
“logos”= “word, thought”
• Application of knowledge for practical
purposes, to make things and achieve
humanly useful results.
• In a broad sense, technology includes
the use of fire and stone axes and thus
antedates science.
• Unlike science, moreover, technology is
common in some form to every human
culture that has ever existed.
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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
• Technology is not necessarily an application of science.
– It can be based on craft rather than science, with knowledge being
slowly accumulated and applied (often through trial and error) and
passed on from one generation to the next. E.g irrigation systems
• More and more, technology is being influenced by scientific
knowledge, with spectacular results.-R&D. They are all carried
out in social, political and economic contexts.
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SOCIETY
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Some definitions of society:
• an organized group of people associated as members of a
community
Society • an organized group of persons associated together for religious,
cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.
• a highly structured system of human organization for large-scale
community living that normally furnishes protection, continuity,
security, and a national identity for its members. Such a system is
characterized by its dominant economic class or form: middle-class
society; industrial society.
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• Society can be applied to science and
technology. Scientists and technologists do
not work in isolation. They work in
universities, firms or research groups.
• Questions about ethics and conduct within
these groupings, how they should be
financed and how they are best organised,
are also matters which researchers in
Science, Technology and Society can ask
about.
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WHY STUDY SCIENCE,
TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY?
Science and Technology Studies
• STS draws from various disciplines, including history, sociology,
philosophy, political science, and cultural studies, to
understand the complexities of science and technology.
• STS emphasizes that scientific knowledge and technological
advancements are not solely determined by nature but are
also influenced by social, political, economic, and cultural
factors.
• STS investigates how science and technology shape society and
how, in turn, society influences the development and
application of science and technology.
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The Relationship between Science, Technology and Society
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• The science understanding of how
the world functions alters how we
behave.
• Technology alters how we can
behave.
• Society drives technological
innovations and fosters scientific
inquiry.
• Science gives us insight into the
kinds of technologies we could
potentially create and how to
develop them, while technology
enables us to conduct further
scientific research.
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• The fact that science is always the product of
human activity.
• We are all familiar with terms such as the
'progress of science' or the 'onward march of
technology', and we tend to forget that all
scientific knowledge has been produced by
people thinking, believing, arguing, and
sometimes making mistakes.
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• Human beings can always decide what
research is done, and what is done with the
results
• Science and technology are not the product of
some unstoppable force, but are human
products which both shape, and are shaped
by, the society from which they emerge.
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• Science and technology has
brought lots of benefits and
opportunities to humankind,
but there are increasing
concerns over science and
technology due to many
reasons such as the use of
S&T in WWII and Vietnam
war
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Issues in science and technology
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Issue 1 – Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and
Ethical Concerns
• AI is transforming fields such as healthcare, finance,
and surveillance.
• Key concerns:
• Bias in AI algorithms (e.g., racial or gender
bias in hiring and policing systems) This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
• Privacy risks (e.g., facial recognition and
personal data misuse)
• Job displacement due to automation
• Accountability and decision-making (e.g., AI
in law and healthcare)
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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
Issue 2 – Climate Change and
Green Technologies
• Climate change is driven by human activities and
technological development.
• Green technologies, such as electric vehicles,
renewable energy, and carbon capture, aim to reduce
environmental damage.
• Key concerns:
• Political and economic resistance to green
policies
• Access and affordability of green technology
• Effectiveness of carbon capture and renewable
energy
• Environmental justice and global disparities
• Example: The shift to electric vehicles (EVs) raises
questions about battery mining ethics and
sustainability.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
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So..why
To explore science and technology
from different perspectives
should To gain more understanding about
influence of science and technology
on society and vice versa
YOU To learn issues in science and
learn technology
STS? Towards becoming a well-rounded,
socially responsible professional in
science or nonscience
STS for a sustainable future of humanity
Figure: Key knowledge and skills to address sustainability
challenges (https://www.mcgill.ca/sss/)
Main references
Bridgstock, M., Burch, D., Forge, J., Laurent, J., & Lowe, I. (1998). Science, technology
and society: an introduction. Cambridge University Press.
Bucchi, M. (2004). Science in society: An introduction to social studies of science.
Routledge.
Grant, E. (1997). HISTORY OF SCIENCE: When Did Modern Science Begin?. The
American Scholar, 66(1), 105-113.
McGinn, R. E. (1991). Science, Technology and Society. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Sismondo, S. (2004). An introduction to science and technology studies. Chichester:
Wiley-Blackwell.- Chapter 1
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