HPSC1008 Introduction to Science Communication

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HPSC1008 Introduction to Science Communication

• Lecture Two
• Science and Culture
• Monday 6th October

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What is Culture?

• The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief
  and behaviour that depends upon peoples capacity
  for learning and transmitting knowledge to
  succeeding generations
• The customary beliefs, social forms, and material
  traits of a racial, religious or social group
• The arts and other manifestations of human
  intellectual achievement regarded collectively
• The total of the inherited ideas, beliefs, values
  and knowledge which constitute the shared bases
  of social action

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Science in Culture I

• Until 16th C, knowledge held by private
  individuals
• Healers, seers, sages
• Or, common sense, folklore
• No community of learning
• In 16th C certain knowledges brought into
  cultural context
• e.g. court astronomers, astologer, navigator,
  alchemist
• Tycho Brahe in Denmark, John Dee in England
• In 17th C, these individuals came together
• Formation of learned societies
• Royal Society of London, 1660
• Symptom of the scientific revolution
• More systematic way of understanding and
  investigating the world
• Separation of superstition and knowledge/faith

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Science in Culture II

• Royal Society saw natural philosophy as something
  that could help restructure society after civil
  war.
• Nature never separates us into mortal factions,
  but gives us room to differ without animosity,
  and permits us to raise contrary imaginations
  upon it, without danger of the Civil War
• Thomas Sprat, Biographer of the Royal Society,
  1667
• Science with a political and social message
• Institutionalisation of science, relied on
  drawing boundaries between science and other
  types of knowledge

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Newton and the communication of science

• Newtons Principia (1687)
• Mechanised view of universe became part of every
  cultured or literate persons world view
• Lots of popularisation of Newtons ideas by
  science lecturers around England
• By mid 18th C, science is very prominent in
  cultural life.
• But science is part of knowledge as a whole, not
  a separate thing called science
• e.g Encyclopaedia

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The decline of science?

• Charles Babbage (1791- 1871)
• Reflections on the Decline of Science in England,
  and some of its causes (1829)
• Science is not supported by the government
  because the public is not interested in it
• Royal Society full of amateurs, needed more
  professional science
• Suggested that a body be set up to raise public
  feeling on science

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The British Association for the Advancement of
Science (BAAS)

• Set up in 1831 as a place where scientists could
  meet to discuss scientific issues of the day
• Held an Annual Meeting which had lectures and
  talks by the big names in science of the age.
• Carved out boundary between the scientists and
  the lay people
• Communiation of who is expert and who is not key
  here.
• Mathematician William Whewell, coined the term
  scientist to describe this new more
  professional body of people in 1833, at a BAAS
  meeting.
• Careful not to tread on the toes of religion.
• Embraced natural theology as common ground for
  discussion of science and religion

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Natural Theology

• William Paley (Natural Theology, 1802)
• Science was the joy of discovering Gods creation
• Intelligent design
• Science was a moral and religious pursuit
• Provided a medium for discussion of science in
  same space as religion, arts
• So science remained very prominent in cultural
  discussions in Victorian age

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Separation of Science

• Developments in biology, geology brought science
  more and more into conflict with Christianity
• The Origin of Species (1859)
• Strain on natural theology to contain these
  debates
• Lots of discussion towards end of 19th C about
  science and education, also conflicted with the
  church

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The fragmentation of the common context

• For science to be assigned authority, have
  control over educational needs, training of
  scientsts, religion had to go.
• Scientists actively communicated to public why
  science was better at providing questions about
  the world
• John Tyndalls 1874 BAAS speech.
• Forged own separate identity and knowledge
• Relied on ideas of experiment, rationality,
  method
• Scientists are no professionals, not amateurs
• Distinct and separate cultural space, with own
  rules, and own type of communication

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Science in the 20th Century

• Science popularised in public sphere by few
  scientists
• Tended to be very political in early 20th C
• Left-wing anti war - JD Bernal, Hogben, JBS
  Haldane
• Middle classes now becoming scientists
• Second World War
• Science huge part of war effort
• Scientists drafted into service
• Science secretive, but practical, and
  economically successful
• Post WWII science emerges with very high status
• Science won the war, new technological products
  (radar), pro nuclear weapons and energy.
• Scientists becomes very involved in science
  policy
• More public funding for science

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C.P. Snow and the Two Cultures Debate

• Scientist turned policy maker
• Commented on what he saw as a growing cultural
  divide
• "the intellectual life of the whole of western
  society is increasingly being split into two
  polar groups.
• 1956 New Statesman and Nation
• Criticised by literary critic F.R. Leavis
• Two cultures recurring theme in discussions about
  science and society

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C.P. Snow (1956)

• a gulf of mutual incomprehension -
  sometimeshostility and dislike, but most of all,
  lack of understanding . The separation between
  the scientists and the non-scientists is much
  less bridgeable amoung the young than it was even
  30 years ago at least they managed a frozen
  smile across the gulf. Now the politeness is gone
  an they just make faces.

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Science in the late-20th Century

• 1970s Thatcher Government
• Low levels of science funding in UK
• Not much popularisation by scientists
• Stayed in ivory towers
• Similar sentiment to Babbage at end of 18th C
• Science needed to raise public feeling on subject
• Public understanding of science movement - Week 4
• In cultural terms - postmodern context?
• Science knowledge alongside many others
• New age, homeopathy, new religions
• Scientists struggling to maintain their special
  status as experts?
• Attacks on pseduoscience/fringe science/religions
  (Dawkins)