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Authorizing Knowledge in Science and Anthropology
Author(s) -
Fujimura Joan H.,
Luce Henry R.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1998.100.2.347
Subject(s) - objectivity (philosophy) , subjectivity , analogy , epistemology , euclidean geometry , sociology , philosophy of science , philosophy , anthropology , mathematics , geometry
An analogy exists between today's “defenders” of science in the “science/culture wars” and 19th‐century “defenders” of euclidean geometry. Current critics have appointed themselves as arbiters of truth in a manner analogous to that of 19th‐century mathematicians and theologians who argued against noneuclidean geometry that challenge Euclid's mathematically, philosophically, and theologically entrenched fifth postulate. The science wars then and now are not about science versus antiscience, objectivity versus subjectivity, but about authority in science: what kind of science should be practiced, and who gets to define it?