Authorizing knowledge in science and anthropology

Journal/Book: Amer Anthropol. 1998; 100: 4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 640, Arlington, VA 22203. Amer Anthropological Assoc. 347.

Abstract: 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?.

Note: Article Fujimura JH, Stanford Univ, Dept Anthropol, Stanford,CA 94305 USA

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