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Science as Representation (of Nature and Society)

Science as Representation (of Nature and Society). Two meanings of representation: Make a picture, image, diagram, or model Speak for, stand in for Questions about scientific representation How do we know what we (think we) know? How do we tell true from false (scientific) knowledge?

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Science as Representation (of Nature and Society)

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  1. Science as Representation (of Nature and Society) • Two meanings of representation: • Make a picture, image, diagram, or model • Speak for, stand in for • Questions about scientific representation • How do we know what we (think we) know? • How do we tell true from false (scientific) knowledge? • How, in cases of doubt and uncertainty, do we tell better knowledge from worse knowledge? ESPP-78

  2. The Illusion(s) of Empiricism: Knowing and Seeing ESPP-78

  3. Interpretive Flexibility • The Rashomon effect (based on 1950 Kurasawa film) • Same signals are interpreted in different ways by different viewers • Reasons: • Standpoint (e.g., social position) • Prior framings (e.g., historical experience) • Strategic interests (e.g., political motives) ESPP-78

  4. Social Construction of Science • What does it mean to say that scientific knowledge is “(socially) constructed”? • Science is a human, social, political activity • Science tries to reduce the interpretive flexibility of nature • Science is carried out according to conventions about: • What questions are important (health, ecology) • What can be feasibly investigated (low doses, synergies) • How should these questions be investigated (methods) • What counts as valid knowledge and what does not (use of simulations and scenarios, historical data, lay knowledge) ESPP-78

  5. Where does evidence of “construction” come from? • Histories of science • Ideas of Ludwik Fleck and Thomas Kuhn • Thought collectives; paradigms • Sociology and anthropology of science • The “strong programme” of David Bloor: • see what scientists do, not what they say; • don’t take truth for granted; • use “symmetrical” explanations • Events in the world • controversies, accidents, surprises, failed predictions ESPP-78

  6. Reducing Interpretive Flexibility When Science Meets Policy • How is interpretive flexibility reduced in policy environments? • What is speeding, and how do we know it? • What is pollution and how do we know it? • What is climate change, and how do we know it? • What is anthropogenic climate change, and how do we know it? ESPP-78

  7. Mauna Loa Measurements:An Unambiguous Signal? ESPP-78

  8. Frame Shift: The Hockey Stick ESPP-78

  9. Complicating the Curve: More Data, Less Clarity? ESPP-78

  10. Common Misunderstandings about Social Construction • Relativist fallacies: • “Anything goes”: no; all scientific accounts have to accommodate observed phenomena • “There is no external reality”: no; rather, our perceptions of reality are socially mediated • “Any knowledge as good as any other”: no; there are conventions about goodness in science • “All science is political”: maybe; but how? ESPP-78

  11. How Models Construct the World • What causal understandings are built into a model? • E.g., Climate change is anthropogenic, not caused by sunspots or random temperature fluctuations • Which parameters are important? • E.g., Climate variation is related to carbon emissions from human activities such as car use, deforestation • What methods are used to test those parameters? • E.g., Instruments, simulations, “ground truthing” of satellite data, historical records, lay experience ESPP-78

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