Module 10

Week 10

 

This week, the “American experiment” goes through the periodic ritual we call an election. “America” has long strived to achieve or exemplify several important Enlightenment ideals – freedom, equality, democracy, infinite progress, a belief that science is a valid way to understand the world. These are big topics. Has the American experiment changed its vision? Are we still committed to these quintessentially Modern ideals… freedom, equality, democracy, progress and science? Or are we moving toward a “post-modern” world in which those ideals are seen as over-rated? As not worth the sacrifices they demand? Freedom demands responsibility. Equality demands humility. Democracy demands educated participation. Progress demands intellectual engagement with the future. Science… what does science demand?

 

This week, we begin to read Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Abbas Milani assigned this book when he taught this very class almost 30 years ago. I wondered at the time why we were reading a book about scientific revolutions… in the intervening 30 years I’ve had so many occasions to be grateful that we did. This is a book about how knowledge evolves within human societies – at least within Modern Western scientific human societies. It’s about how change happens in those societies. This is the book that brought the notion of “paradigms” and “paradigm shifts” into relatively common usage… it introduced the idea that science (and by extension the social changes it facilitates or demands) evolves through stages of “punctuated equilibrium.” 

 

As humanity grapples with the overwhelming challenges of climate change, the question of how we relate to “science” is front and center in our national, indeed global, dialogue. Can science explain climate change? Can it come up with solutions? Should we trust it? The question of how we relate to science is front and center as we grapple with pandemic, too. Can science explain the virus? Can it come up with a solution? Should we wear masks? Should we physically distance ourselves from one another? Can we trust scientific solutions or aren’t they maybe too hard? Too demanding?

 

How we collectively answer these questions may provide indications about where we are going in general. Is the West still driven by Enlightenment values, or are we moving toward a post-enlightened, post-modern world view?

 

Thinking about where science is in relation to climate change and other challenges, and where humanity is in relation to science, it seems fitting to delve deeply into this classic text, to better understand how the Modern Western world has experienced change, and try to discern what kinds of changes, in which directions, the Modern Western world might be heading for.

 

This week, please read the first 9 chapters of Kuhn, from the Preface to The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions. As you read, take notes on how the insights are valuable in understanding science, and also how they are valuable in understanding Modern society.

 

If you do not yet have your book, please let me know ASAP.