Uncertain Knowledge: An Image of Science for a Changing World

This book introduces and develops an integrated view of science as a varied human activity rather than an abstract intellectual process, asking significant questions about the nature and limits of scientific knowledge. The author uses a technique of "cognitive play," which creates and explores new links between the ideas and results of contemporary history, philosophy and sociology of science. New ideas and approaches are applied to a wide range of case studies, many of them from controversial and contested science. Historians and sociologists of science, and anyone interested in the history, philosophy and social context of science will find this a fascinating evaluation of controversial and contested science.

What is science? How is scientific knowledge affected by the society that produces it? Does scientific knowledge directly correspond to reality? Can we draw a line between science and pseudo-science? Will it ever be possible for computers to undertake scientific investigation independently? Is there such a thing as feminist science? In this book the author addresses questions such as these using a technique of "cognitive play", which creates and explores new links between the ideas and results of contemporary history, philosophy and sociology of science.