THE PROBLEM OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL OBSTACLE IN SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY: CANONIZATION IN TEXTBOOKS

Date

2023-7

Author

Doğanay, Yankı Doruk

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The common-sensical view and philosophers of science attribute the characteristic of progress to scientific transformation by abstracting scientific activity from its social embeddedness. Conversely, this dissertation aims to investigate the social embeddedness of scientific transformation around the question of whether there exists a narration of scientific transformation or not in scientific textbooks and if it exists how it is narrated. I investigate this issue by analyzing two textbooks including Concepts of Modern Physics textbook by Arthur Beiser and Introducing Cultural Studies textbook by Longhurst et al. The reason behind selecting textbooks as the objects of study is that these textbooks provide insights into the canonization of scientific activity in the social context in contrast to scientific activity in its abstract form. I analyze these textbooks by employing the analytical frameworks of Bachelard and Althusser around the notion of ‘epistemological obstacle’. Within this framework, I discuss the textbooks’ narration of scientific transformation between contemporary and previous scientific activities. Firstly, I discuss Longhurst et al.’s narration that contemporary cultural studies breaks from essentialist and reductionist approaches by taking cultural complexity into account. Secondly, I analyze Beiser’s narration that modern physics breaks from the notions of absoluteness and universality rooted in classical physics. I argue that there exists a continuity in the organizing principles on which analytical concepts are rooted in the previous and current scientific activities as narrated by textbooks. Nevertheless, I also argue that these concepts multiply and become more particularistic in their narration.

Subject Keywords

scientific transformation, epistemological obstacle, cultural studies, modern physics, scientific textbooks

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/104531

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis