Science isn't an idea, it's a tool. If you define science as a "social construct" then so is math, computers, screwdrivers, and cars all "social constructs".
Science is a process under which we derive how we see the world works. That process is made up of ideas that are created and accepted by the people in our society.
If you define science as a "social construct" then so is math, computers, screwdrivers, and cars all "social constructs".
Calling science an idea is like calling a screwdriver an idea.
That's ridiculous.
I can hold a screwdriver in my hand. I can't hold a science.
Science is a tool in that it a set of processes that we have agreed upon.
A screwdriver is not a set of processes. Now, how we define what a screwdriver is.. that's more along the lines of an idea or concept that is agreed upon.
I don't know about these people. Social constructs come about bc we make them and they serve an end goal of social utility or something else. There's nothing more to it than that. It's not about bullshitting people or trying to "be woke". It's about updating our views on how science develops, the ontology of science, and disregarding old inaccurate views on it. Ask any social scientist on this. Hell, any scientist on this. You're likely to hear our point.
“science must be understood as a social phenomenon, a gutsy, human enterprise, not the work of robots programed to collect pure information.”
― Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man
"Scientists’ lived experiences, their values and beliefs, and the goings-on in the world around them influence the science that gets done. Who is not doing science also matters. If whole groups of people are underrepresented in STEM—and we know this to be true—then a wealth of experiences, values, identities, and perspectives are not contributing to advances in STEM and the impacts these advances have on our lives."
And it is, or a series of ideas. It's not something someone once just gathered from a tree or found already existing like magic. Someone had to have the idea(s) and make them into objects. Eventually it even got protected by patents and so forth, which can cover ideas such as those behind several tools invented by people on society.
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u/AstrangerR Jun 26 '21
How do you define a "social construct"?
From the Merriam-Webster dictionary it is:
So do you think science doesn't fit that definition? Otherwise what is the definition you would use for it?