What is Science?

What is science -as an idea and a practice? What is the relationship between science and society given the fact that modern science has emerged in a particular space and time. There is a vague understanding of the  realtionship of science and society. In fact the understanding of science is also under attack like never before. To rescue the original idea of science from the clings of hypermodernity and techno-rationality, it is important to reveal that the current conceptualization of science is narrow and euro-centric and also to approach the science from multiple perspectives.

As we know, science is not limited to to making of big Telescope, Supe-Computer and mega enterprise. It is an activity as well as an idea. It is a mode of thinking that grew out of society's considerations and compulsions at different points of time. So, to put society and the science in opposite contradictory box is against the grain.

Historically, science, as Shiv Vishwanathan has put it, is a democratic imagination- the imagination that is based on the notions of logic, truth, and knowledge that generates the power of critical inquiry. It is a way of knowing and acting that can be summed up as socially-embedded knowledge. 

Modern science consists of rationalism, empiricism and belief in material reality. It has special historicity. The framework it provides is embedded in the ideas of institutional forms of the social constituent and the social order. 

Everett Mendelsohn, a Harvard University professor, defines the science as a social activity that grew and produced in society in association with social enterprise. According to him, the boundary between scientific and non-scientific knowledge is porous and text-centric. That's why, he calls for the new way of understanding the science along with the notion of magic, miracles and range of experiences. Popper, another philosopher of science, suggests that to get knowledge legitimized in society, the propositions explaining the phenomena must be open to falsification in society. Kuhn has also called attention, when he said that it is often not possible to clearly distinguish between personal commitment and professional commitment to faith and reason. Hence, it is proper to say that the right way to approach the science and scientific knowledge goes through the socio-historical pathways. In fact, the rigid boundary between cognitive and social levels of science does not exist. So, the approach to study the science, as Polanyi has argued in his book Science, Religion and Faith calls for new epistemological vision.

There are many questions that emerged when we put science in continuum with the magic and miracle. What is the flip side of science? Does differents segment of the society approach science differently? And more importantly, is the science only what scientists do?