One thing that really bothers me is when people in the humanities dept say, "science is a western construct" and reject it entirely. It's been happening quite often, usually by people who have very little science background. It's relativism taken too far, when scientific fact is put on question as though it was just opinion.
It would be one thing to argue this if they actually had some understanding of science. But it's so insulting and dismissive when it's done ignorantly.
That bothers me too! I think some social scientists really don't get the scientific method...and I say that as someone who just went through a social science MA program.
ReplyDeleteScience may fall into western frames of thought and it doesn't mean we should reject things like acupuncture and eastern medicine that WORK, but we shouldn't reject the scientific method either.
--D.G.