American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
2019
American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
e-ISSN : 2378-703X Volume-3, Issue-7, pp-11-17 www.ajhssr.com
Research Paper
Open Access
On the role of personal epistemology in the study of Science, Technology and Society MaybĂ Morell Faculty of Psychology, University of Havana, San LĂĄzaro y L, 10400 La Habana, Cuba
ABSTRACT : The study of the social influence on the scientific praxis is an important branch of social sciences. This branch, however, has focused mostly on large scale phenomena or otherwise individual ethics. In this work we propose a way to approach this topic from individual psychological constructs using the cognitiveframe of personal epistemology. In particular, we show that the insertion of psychological variables to account for the self-control over personal epistemology is a useful tool facing the modern tendencies of the scientific work. The pertinence of this approach for a complete analysis of the science agents is discussed in several perspectives. We recall that, even when socio-scientific dynamics is not reducible to its constituents, it is precisely within the individuals that many important clues can be found to understend complex collective behaviors.
KEYWORDS : Personal epistemology, interdisciplinary research, cognitive processes, social sciences I. INTRODUCTION The interplay between science and technology is mediated by individuals and its social structures, which in turn are an expression of the specific context. As it is now extensively accepted [1], the processes of production, diffusion and application of the scientific knowledge cannot be explained without taking into account external variables such as economical motivations or political and military interests. With a particular strength since the last century, these processes link science to all other forms of human activity. In the following, with the aim of not to neglect the scientific objectivity in the discussion on the influence of social interests and conventions, we adhere to a two-dimensional operationalization of science: Science as activity and science as knowledge [2]. This classification is very useful for social researchers, even if its value is only theoretical and the limits between knowledge and activity is sometimes quite hard to determine. Within this frame, it is assumed that while science as knowledge is (and has to be) neutral, science as activity can be seen as an institution of the society an thereforeconstantly permeated and influenced by societal paradigms and structures [3]. In this approach the science as knowledge guarantees the cognitive value of theories and other expressions of knowledge, on the basis of intellectual honesty, understood as a commitment with objectivity. While the social environment is the place where contemporary scientific activity is performed, i.e. the science as activity, the science as knowledge is developed to a great extent within the scientists and other science agents. Therefore, the complete analysis of this topic has to include a complementary psychosocial study of the individuals. In this work we start to build this path, by considering the epistemological beliefs system that individuals develop during her life, understood in the broad sense of what it is known today as personal epistemology. We argue that personal epistemology can be used as fundamental variable to unveil the puzzle of how social and scientific traits are braided within the subjects.
1.1 Theoretical basis Here we subscribe to the classification of knowledge made by Karl Popper [4] distinguishing between the knowledge of common sense or ordinary, and the scientific knowledge. In Popper’s epistemological position the scientific knowledge is considered as a development of ordinary knowledge. In this way science, philosophy and rational thinking emerges from common sense, even if the latter can be completely false in many situations. Unlike rationalists and empiricists, this approach do not intends to build a system with immovable grounds. The common sense is a basic knowledge to start from, a foundational knowledge that is in the basis of any rational discussion, but their beliefs can and must be questioned and criticized any time [5]. In this way there is a
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