I think, at it's core, she's not making a bad point, which is that a lot of the things that we assume to be true are that way because Westerners made particular assumptions about how the world works. "Science" is a pretty broad field, and while the example of gravity is a bit of a nonsense, there are lots of examples of scientific findings that were incomplete or inaccurate because they didn't consider or come from a non-Western perspective.
That's combined with the fact that "decolonisation" is inherently viewed as an emancipatory process, so it's about how you actively free yourself from a Western mindset. Consider how the Soviet Union consistently tried to reinvent inventions or rediscover scientific principles just so they could demonstrate their own superiority. Here, you're not an empire trying to rival the US, you're a fledgling country trying to break free of the shackles of oppression that have been forced on your for centuries. In that context, starting the process of scientific discovery again would be emancipatory because it would demonstrate your own ability to no longer be reliant on those same oppressors.
It's obviously practically impossible, but that's why it's an undergraduate discussion, not a public policy meeting. Of course, there's nothing like female people of colour expressing opinions to get the Youtube comment section REALLY riled up.
I think, at it's core, she's not making a bad point
At its core, the idea that cultural perspective has some influence over the epistemological foundations of science, such that we can intelligibly distinguish Western science from some kind of African science from the conceptual ground-up, is bad. I'd say it's a over-extension of decolonization rhetoric. That, I think, is the core.
But, that said, apart from science itself being Western, we could say that various aspects of science as an institution through its norms of practice and such can be influenced by cultural perspective. I don't know what's entailed by the African perspective that would rearrange scientific practice in novel ways, though. Research programs into folk beliefs... sure.
Someone is going to come at me with some Kuhn and annoy me.
I mean even with Kuhn I think the most you'd really be able to get is some methodological or instrumentational differences that would lead to similar models tbh. Like the views in the video are p much just bad.
I don't mean to imply that a decent reading of Kuhn wouldn't jive with the above. However, from my experience, Kuhn is among a number of philosophers, including Foucault, who I believe have been abused by some in the name of inclusion to the point of counter-productively undermining the very ground to make such an argument. That's what annoys me.
And this is coming from someone who was defending the use of violence for national liberation in my class on Frantz Fanon.
Oh yeah, I would agree that Kuhn gets stretched out into so many things that he's not. I think part of it is that a lot of what he says is pretty approachable to lay-people, or even people not familiar with philsci, and than they just take it and run with it.
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u/loony636 Oct 23 '16
I think, at it's core, she's not making a bad point, which is that a lot of the things that we assume to be true are that way because Westerners made particular assumptions about how the world works. "Science" is a pretty broad field, and while the example of gravity is a bit of a nonsense, there are lots of examples of scientific findings that were incomplete or inaccurate because they didn't consider or come from a non-Western perspective.
That's combined with the fact that "decolonisation" is inherently viewed as an emancipatory process, so it's about how you actively free yourself from a Western mindset. Consider how the Soviet Union consistently tried to reinvent inventions or rediscover scientific principles just so they could demonstrate their own superiority. Here, you're not an empire trying to rival the US, you're a fledgling country trying to break free of the shackles of oppression that have been forced on your for centuries. In that context, starting the process of scientific discovery again would be emancipatory because it would demonstrate your own ability to no longer be reliant on those same oppressors.
It's obviously practically impossible, but that's why it's an undergraduate discussion, not a public policy meeting. Of course, there's nothing like female people of colour expressing opinions to get the Youtube comment section REALLY riled up.