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International audience ; La science politique, une branche de la recherche juridique

International audience ; La science politique, une branche de la recherche juridique

If we ask around what science is, in most cases the answer will likely be some sort of example related to mathematics, computer science, astrophysics, biology or medicine. In any case, the answers will identify the word 'science' with what has been classified as experimental science. Most of those answers, in all likelihood, will mistake science for technology, confusion nevertheless frequent among our political and academic authorities. If the same question were to be asked in a faculty of arts, the answer would probably be similar. If it were asked in a faculty of sciences, the identification of experimentation with science by means of technology would probably appear in 100% of the answers. Social sciences would then note that in order to verify these statements, a survey of a sample x within a population y would be necessary. However, our media, social, political and economic environment is quite clear. The current predominant thinking determines that not only those involved in science believe so, but also those who have nothing to do with it take it for granted: in the faculties of sciences they make Science, and not such thing is done in the faculties of arts

Frank R. Baumgartner, professor, political science
department, Pennsylvania State University, will spend the 2004–2005
academic year on sabbatical leave at the European University
Institute in Florence, Italy and at Science Po in Paris, France.Jonathan Bendor, Walter and Elise Haas Professor of
Political Economics and Organizations, Graduate School of Business,
Stanford University, was appointed a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences.Michael Berkman, associate professor, political science
department, Pennsylvania State University, will spend the fall 2004
semester on sabbatical leave completing a book on educational
politics.

ActivitiesChun-tu Hsueh, Huang Hsing Foundation, was elected a
foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and
honorary fellow of the Institute of East European, Russian and
Central Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Joseph Agassi's themes in this piece relate to the importance of science and technology in the modern world, the interaction between science and technology, the interrelation between science and culture, the political dimension of science in a democracy, the improvement on the Popperian project in the methodology of science (shifting gears to pluralistic critical rationalism), and the philosophical elements that inform science as well as being informed by science.

Over the last two centuries, as politics has evolved from the status of "amateurship" to that of profession, political discourse, together with its practices and their validity, has been increasingly subject to questioning. Politicians, as illustrated by the low turnouts that have recently characterised general elections and a general lack of interest in politics throughout Western countries, enjoy less than ever the trust of the electorate, and their discourse is now often criticised for being both hollow and untrustworthy. Conversely, by evolving from the status of enlightened amateur to that of expert, the figure of the scientist has, over recent centuries, gained credibility with the general public. Even though the traditional view of science as the expression of reality has regularly been challenged, science continues to be held in high regard and is believed to provide a reliable form of knowledge. Summoning science has thus often been a way, in everyday life, advertising and the popular media, to lend authority to a discourse, and imply that one's claims are beyond dispute. That politicians should have occasionally been tempted to do the same and make up for the deficit of legitimacy of their discourse through the instrumentalisation of scientific arguments or participation in contemporaneous debates on scientific issues is, therefore, not surprising. The issue at stake in this volume is to examine how, and to what extent, this process may have been taking place in the past three centuries. In order to accomplish this, the contributions cover various fields of expertise, ranging from the "hard" sciences to more controversial types of science, investigating the intricate relations of science and political discourse

In recent years, many members of the intellectual community have embraced a radical relativism regarding knowledge in general and scientific knowledge in particular, holding that Kuhn, Quine, and Feyerabend have knocked the traditional picture of scientific knowledge into a cocked hat. Is philosophy of science, or mistaken impressions of it, responsible for the rise of relativism? In this book, Laudan offers a trenchant, wide-ranging critique of cognitive relativism and a thorough introduction to major issues in the philosophy of knowledge.

International studies have shown that interest in science and technology among primary and secondary school students in Western European countries is low and seems to be decreasing. In many countries outside Europe, and especially in developing countries, interest in science and technology remains strong. As part of the large-scale European Union funded 'Science Education for Diversity' project, a questionnaire probing potential reasons for this difference was completed by students in the UK, Netherlands, Turkey, Lebanon, India and Malaysia. This questionnaire sought information about favourite courses, extracurricular activities and views on the nature of science. Over 9,000 students aged mainly between 10 and 14 years completed the questionnaire. Results revealed that students in countries outside Western Europe showed a greater interest in school science, in careers related to science and in extracurricular activities related to science than didWestern European students. Non-European studentswere also more likely to hold an empiricist viewof the nature of science and to believe that science can solve many problems faced by the world. Multilevel analysis revealed a strong correlation between interest in science and having such a view of the Nature of Science. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014.