History of Science - review a chapter of Peter Bowler and Iwan Morus's Essay

History of Science - review a chapter of Peter Bowler and Iwan Morus's textbook Making Modern Science (Chapter on Science and - Essay Example In fact, however, scientists and historians have argued for many centuries about the differences between the two, suggesting that pure science is hierarchically different from its applications in the world of work. The chapter explains how some thinkers place science above technology, and others place science below technology, in importance. The authors finally come to the conclusion that the best way to think about these two things is to observe examples and conclude that â€Å"little practical distinction is made between the two.† (p. 401) The authors start with recent times and argue that the most common view in the twentieth century was that science was more pure, and more important because it dealt with ideas and truths. Technology was considered a lesser area of study because it was concerned with merely things. It could be said that this is an idealist position, because it is theoretical, and imaginary, rather than concrete and applied. An interesting aspect of the auth ors’ approach is that it also brings in cultural and political factors. Scientists often see things through a narrow lens, in terms of numbers and theories, as if these things are absolute, but this chapter shows that ideas like Marxism influenced science. This ideology strongly favors a materialistic view of things, and stresses the usefulness of ideas in the real world. For scientists in Soviet Russia, then, technology was seen as more important. Scientists in the Capitalist western countries, on the other hand, continued with old ideas from the Enlightenment, which favored the theoretical over the practical. Another useful comparison is drawn (pp. 396-397) between French and English government approaches to the funding of science in the nineteenth century. In France the government wanted to promote science for its wealth-bringing potential, and funded research very generously, while in Britain there was a more relaxed attitude which left research to be more of a gentlemanà ¢â‚¬â„¢s hobby which was funded by private money. Looking at the world of science today it is interesting to see that these same old debates are still very relevant, because scientists always have to seek various sources of funding for their work. The American contribution to this debate was to emphasize the importance of inventors like Morse and Edison, who used their craft skills and intelligence to improve existing designs and create completely new ones. These men referred to traditional scientists, also, when they needed to solve some problems, which goes to show that theory and practice need to work together if progress is to be made. The chapter contains a number of headings, some of which are indicators of a particular example such as â€Å"steam culture† while others are more fancy such as â€Å"the chicken and the egg† and â€Å"invisible technicians.† These fancy headings do not help the reader to work out what the next topic is going to be. Unlike mos t historical textbooks, this one does not present the facts in chronological order, since it jumps back and forward through the ages, following the arguments for and against the supremacy of science or technology. This can be confusing, since at first it is not clear which way the authors wish the reader to follow. This is a weakness in the chapter, because a lot of the time the reader feels lost, and wondering what the point is that the authors want to make. After