Science & Technology in Social Context

Introduction

The concept of science is challenging to understand because most of the definitions limit its realization to a particular subject and processes. The research paper, therefore, discusses the aspect of science in the context of sociology and illustrates the implications of such definition.

Science

Science is a category of knowledge and the procedures utilized to gain an objective or related information on a particular subject, for instance, discover the existing facts in the universe and the roles of such findings in the past, recent, and future generation. In fact, it focuses on the developing of the technologies and refining the knowledge regarding the world and culture. Concerning sociology, science is fundamental in exemplifying the characteristics of the unique features and realities encompassing the human life. What is more, social science aims at comprehending the connection and cultural importance of the single events in their present-day appearance and reasons for them being historically manifested the way they are. Besides, science attempts to reveal the way life tackles the perception of each person regarding the concrete phenomena. In other words, it reflects the manifolds of successive and coexisting emergence as well as vanishing situations in or outside the lives of human beings (Park & Burgess, 1969).

The Implications of the Definition of Science

The first inference of science with sociology is that only facts and information that persons form comprise the basis of data that is worth knowing. Thus, a restricted segment of such reality constructs the backbones of the scientific investigations. However, the criteria to determine the portions of reality remains a vital question in the aspects of the social science. Actually, the law is a fundamental way of perceiving the multiple categories of the events harboring the numerous and essential facets of reality in the universe. In such scenario, any other event purported as similar to the previous occurrences uses the formulated laws to realize its success. Alternatively, all the events that do not correlate with the formula and rules form the group of the unintegrated information while others refer to them as accidents that do not have a visible significance in the structure of the law (Henshilwood & Marea, 2003). 

The second implication focuses on the cultural reality where science presupposes that knowledge is relevant only from a specified point of view. To explain, in such situation, people assume that historians and scientists have the ability to determine what is important or inconsequential for the society. Nonetheless, scholars argue that every individual should exploit the personal perspectives in order to define a particular standpoint regarding the cultural values and the relationships with other realities of life. Are there any scientific biases when a specialist uses a given evaluation idea to project a certain recurrence in the cultural works? Markedly, a personal aspect of all the scientific examinations must have the central stage in all the researchers to eliminate the self-deception and principles of selection as well as to enhance the conceptualization of an entire epoch (Henshilwood and Marean 2003).

Furthermore, the science definition implies that human beings are the elements of nature striving to gain a self-awareness with the hope that comprehension of the evolution hypothesis can lead humanity to the planned destiny. Notably, different social scientists argue that life appeared when air and solar radiation transmuted into the cells that had the ability to utilize the nitrogen, water vapor and methane to manufacture it into the iron and magnesium as the catalysts. Over and above, there are widespread claims that the South and Central African areas are rich in biodiversity while the people in that places have a physical and genetic similarity with the Bonobo Chimpanzee. Consequently, the scenario explains that evolution occurred in approximately four to six million years ago resulting in human beings being the ancestors of the Australopithecus and Aridipecus (Henshilwood & Marean, 2003).

Conversely, the total biological features of humanity are distinct from the social and cultural characteristics of the species, which leads to an analytical question of whether a natural selection is reliable in determining the origin of the modern people. In their concept evolutionists concentrate only on the capacity of the individuals to fashion, attract and pass on the culture implying that the purpose of the cultural aspects is to improve the conditions of life on Earth (Henshilwood & Marean, 2003). How can science exemplify the destructive nature of a human being and the way it evolved?

Other questions regarding the history and social aspects of people are vital in determining the development of humanity, for example, the period primates started to master the sophisticated languages, the time they developed the technological capacities to form and destroy the habitats. Another key point is that through the modern scientific evidences like DNA mapping, it is clear that humans are different from the animals, even though Bonobo Chimpanzee has about 98.3% similarity with a human concerning the genetic orientations (Richerson & Boyd, 2008).

The essential factor regarding the concept of evolution is that growth is an important attribute of the natural schemes of shaping the ideology of a change. For instance, the European social orientation underwent slow but thoughtful alterations in the nineteenth century, a phenomenon that is referred to as a bourgeois revolution. In this case, the entrepreneurs replaced the powerful hereditary individual by formulating the relevant concepts that altered the traditional stasis hence encouraging the continuous changes in the dominant institutions. To demonstrate, a clear instance is the scenario of France where the feudal society that incurred the transformation due to the emergence of the merchants, manufacturers, and other prominent entrepreneurs (Richerson & Boyd, 2008).

The definition of science may also infer the concept of the paradigm that refers to the aspect of different scientists adhering away from competing for analysis of the activities as evident in the works of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Newton. In other words, the definition leads to a specified model of undertaking the scientific researches with assistance of the traditional hypothesis, rules, and instrumentations. It is arguable that historians are likely to encounter minimal dissimilarities of the scientific knowledge among the different phenomena when they trace it backward. The reason is that metaphysics provides backgrounds to the diverse thoughts with collections of the visual occurrences which have the paradigmatic characteristics anchored on the theories that require an additional research (Richerson & Boyd, 2008).

Additionally, the definition of science causes a restricted vision implying that most of the scientists will focus on a particular subject in details enhancing the complex development of the knowledge. To clarify, the condition limits researchers to evaluate the aspects of a problem that nobody could have imagined thus changing the areas of the research issues. Majority of the scholars have shifted from the theories to examinations that entail the gathering of the facts through the observations and experiments in order to the gain the results. Thereupon, there are three classes of actual information gathering in the social science including the fact finding through the visual and instrumentation analysis, determination of the events by comparing the theories and exact findings and, lastly, scientific scrutiny to determine the nature of phenomena (Richerson & Boyd, 2008).

Conclusion

The aspect of science is extremely broad in the sociology perspective and most definitions may imply the concept that narrows the vision of the researchers in a particular field. As a result, it is relevant for every social scientist to determine the personal viewpoints in handling the issues to avoid the misleading theories and laws of science.