Clashes of Knowledge: Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies in Science and Religion: 1 (Knowledge and Space)

Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies in Science and Religion, Knowledge and Space, Vol. 1 | "Clashes of Knowledge" is the first volume of a series called "Knowledge .
Table of contents

True Believer Eric Hoffer. Dalit Assertion Sudha Pai. Panchayati Raj Kuldeep Mathur. Personal Politics Sara Evans. The Courage of Hopelessness Slavoj Zizek. Future Shock Alvin Toffler. Liquid Love Zygmunt Bauman. Global News Alexa Robertson. Liquid Times Zygmunt Bauman. Steps to an Ecology of Mind Gregory Bateson. Social Research Methods Alan Bryman.

Ghostly Matters Avery F. Leadership without Easy Answers Ronald A. The Undercover Economist Tim Harford. Emotional Intelligence Daniel Goleman. Reporting Talk Rebecca Clift. Other books in this series.

Clashes of knowledge: orthodoxies and heterodoxies in science and religion;

Knowledge and Action Benno Werlen. Learning Organizations Peter Meusburger. Clashes of Knowledge Michael Welker. Milieus of Creativity Joachim Funke. Cultural Memories Michael Heffernan. Learning Organizations Ariane Berthoin Antal.

Program of "Clashes of Knowledge"

Geographies of Science David Livingstone. Geographies of Knowledge and Power Derek Gregory. Mobilities of Knowledge Peter Meusburger. Back cover copy "Clashes of Knowledge" is the first volume of a series called "Knowledge and Space" dealing with spatial disparities of knowledge and the impact of the spatial context on the production and application of knowledge. The contributions in this book explore the conflicts between various types of knowledge, especially between orthodox and heterodox knowledge systems, which range from religious fundamentalism to heresies within the scientific community itself.

What should sociologists of science do with this latest episode of "Scopes Revisited?


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Or is the trial better read as another occasion for boundary-work, where strategic and knowledgeable actors on both sides discursively and contingently construct cultural borders and territories "science" and "religion" that create maps beneficial for their political, theological and professional ambitions? Sociology of science has lately begun to witness a post constructivist, postagentic, post-interpretive turn — variously labelled neo-institutionalism or the "new political sociology of science.

Some scientists have an almost unlimited confidence in science and about what can be achieved in the name of science.

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For at least some of them, science even seems to be able to offer us salvation. We should put our faith in science. In my talk I shall distinguish between different kinds of scientism and critically discuss the scientistic claim that the only genuine kind of knowledge that we could have is scientific knowledge. The counter-argument is that there are valid forms of knowledge of non-scientific kind and that this scientistic claim in fact is self-refuting. I shall also try to answer the question whether or not scientism is proper science and show how this question depends on how one understands the relationship between science and human values.

Regime changes of knowledge systems Chair: Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos 5 vols, played a leading role in the determination of the place of scientific knowledge in mid-nineteenth century European society. The book represented a culmination of the emancipation process of the scientific study of nature from its traditional servitude as "handmaiden" of religion and of theology.

The physical description of the universe, Humboldt insisted, leads up to a picture of harmony and unity; but, as Immanuel Kant had argued a century or so before, "all higher speculative views" lie outside the realm of scientific study. Humboldt's narrative of Nature was a consciously secular one and omitted all rhetoric of the divine. Moreover, Humboldt treated the Old and New Testaments, and the Hebrew and the Christian religions on a par with many other sacred texts and systems of faith respectively, relegating these to historical stages in the cultural history of mankind, each characterised by a distinctive idea of Nature.

In Kosmos, Nature as a place and source of pious worship was replaced by Nature as an aesthetic experience. Kosmos enjoyed many reprints, translations, reviews and imitations. The discussions in the periodical literature showed marked national and denominational-religious differences. In the English-speaking world, where the Bridegewater Treatises had just reaffirmed the traditional yet liberal-reform stance that the study of Nature leads up to Nature's God, Kosmos was much criticised for its omission of God, and attempts were made to "domesticate" Humboldt's book for local audiences by connecting it to the argument from design.

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In the German-speaking world, similar criticism was uttered, but less by Protestant than Catholic critics. Moreover, many German commentators instrumentalised Kosmos as a work of popularisation and scientific literature on behalf of a drive for socio-political emancipation that led away from particularism with its church-supported monarchical traditionalism. After German unification, throughout the period of the Kaiserreich, Humboldtianism retained its anticlerical significance, the Monist League adopting Humboldt as a secular patron saint as late as the early years of the twentieth century.

Our modern belief in a controversy between science and religion has its origins in the activities of a relatively small number of intellectuals in the late nineteenth century. Previously, scientific and theological explanations had sat comfortably side-by-side in most discussions of the natural world.

More generally, almost all scientists — even those with faith — began to express their statements about nature in secular terms, thus promoting the appearance of a separation between science and theology. My concern in this paper goes far beyond the limited sphere of intellectual scientists or theologians.

I am interested in how people in general regarded science and theology during the nineteenth century. Although both science and theology can be seen as systems of knowledge, there is a key difference in the ways they are understood or experienced. The general public of nineteenth-century Britain had regular contact with theological modes of explanation and authority through the extensive networks of churches, Sunday schools, ministers, missionaries and teachers which criss-crossed the country.

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Religious practice was part of everyday life for a very large sector of the population — and there was nothing obviously equivalent for the sciences. This is why I will be talking about popular publishing, because reading was a significant way in which non-specialists could learn about the sciences. Books and magazines were not, of course, the only ways people could have learned about the sciences — there were also museums, exhibitions and public lectures — but I would argue that printed matter was the most widely available medium and the one with the largest social and geographical scope.

In my paper, I will trace the emergence of print as a mass medium in the s and s, and discuss the impact this had on the cultural presence of the sciences, particularly with regard to religion. Most publications on the sciences routinely include both theological and scientific explanations. But most publications are too expensive to reach wide audiences. Many men of science are clergymen, too. Changes in the publishing trade make print the first mass medium. Science and other subjects can now reach wide audiences.


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    5. Decisions about what sells i. Expert science becomes professionalized and secular — but the science in popular publications continues to appear in a wide variety of Christian and secular forms. One of the key features of popular publishing is the fact that it was not in any way under the control of the emerging scientific profession.

    What readers found in their books and magazines was what publishers thought would sell — and this did not necessarily reflect the latest thinking about science, or about science and religion. Secular presentations of the sciences were increasingly common in popular literature from the s onwards, but this did not represent an opposition to religion per se but rather, to sectarianism ; nor did Christian presentations disappear.

    The increasingly secular state of professional science in the late nineteenth century did very little to change the range of popular writing upon the sciences — and Christian narratives continued to appear and to sell. It is thus far from clear whether science did in fact replace theology as a system of knowledge — for the majority of the population — in the nineteenth century. Reason, faith and gnosis: I will be discussing the suggestion, first made by the specialist of gnosticism Gilles Quispel, that the development of Western culture rests on three essential pillars: I will discuss the question of whether these can be avoided, and if so, how.

    Against that background I will provide a short introduction to the academic study of Western esotericism: As will be seen, the study of esotericism is not just interesting in and for itself, but challenges some of the most basic assumptions about the foundations of Western culture that still tend to be taken for granted in academic research. My presentation focuses on the question of whether or not we can observe a religious revival after the collapse of communism in the East European countries and how we can account for the religious changes after the social, political and economic upheaval of In order to be able to answer this question it is necessary to analyze the religious situation in communist Eastern Europe before In general communist rule caused a weakening of church ties in the population and a decline in the social significance of church and religion.

    Find it at other libraries via WorldCat Limited preview. Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents Contents, - Introduction to the book series "Knowledge and Space': Introduction to this volume Clashes of Knowledge inside, outside, and at the Threshold of Science: Edgar Wunder, - Chapter 1: Gunter Abel, - Chapter 2: The Nexus of Knowledge and Space: Peter Meusburger, - Chapter 3: Gieryn, - Chapter 4: Harry Collins, - Chapter 5: Science and the Limits of Knowledge: Mikael Stenmark, - Chapter 6: Science and Religion in Popular Publishing: Aileen Fyfe, - Chapter 7: