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Perspectives on Science and Culture Comparative Cultural Studies Perspectives on Science and Culture Comparative Cultural Studies Ari Ofengenden, Series Editor The series examines how cultural practices, especially contemporary creative media, both shape and themselves are shaped by current global developments such as the digitization of culture, virtual reality, global interconnectedness, increased people flows, transhumanism, environmental degradation, and new forms of subjectivi- ties. We aim to publish manuscripts that cross disciplines and national borders in order to provide deep insights into these issues. Perspectives on Science and Culture Edited by Kris Rutten, Stefaan Blancke, and Ronald Soetaert Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana Copyright 2018 by Purdue University. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file at the Library of Congress. Paperback ISBN: 978-1-55753-797-3 ePDF ISBN: 978-1-61249-521-7 ePUB ISBN: 978-1-61249-522-4 An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-1-55753-821-5. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www .knowledgeunlatched.org. Cover image: “The man who measures the clouds” by Jan Fabre / Copyright: Angelos bvba / Photo: Elisabeth Soetaert Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction Perspectives on Science and Culture ix Kris Rutten, Stefaan Blancke, and Ronald Soetaert Part 1: Narrative and Rhetorical Perspectives 1 Chapter 1 Experiencing Nature through Cable Television 3 David J. Tietge Chapter 2 Steven Pinker and the Scientific Sublime: How a New Category of Experience Transformed Popular Science 19 Alan G. Gross Chapter 3 Architectonic Discourses and Their Extremisms 39 Barry Brummett Chapter 4 Science and the Idea of Culture 53 Richard van Oort Chapter 5 A Rhetorical Analysis of the Two Cultures in Literary Fiction 67 Ronald Soetaert and Kris Rutten Chapter 6 The Missing Link and Human Origins: Understanding an Evolutionary Icon 89 Peter C. Kjærgaard Part 2: Cognitive Perspectives 107 Chapter 7 Suspicion toward Science and the Role of Automatic Intuitions about Origins 109 Elisa Järnefelt Chapter 8 Bridging the Gap: From Intuitive to Scientific Reasoning — The Case of Evolution 131 E. Margaret Evans Chapter 9 Missing Links: How Cladograms Reify Common Evolutionary Misconceptions 149 Andrew Shtulman Chapter 10 Representations of the Origin of Species in Secular (France) and Religious (Morocco) Contexts 171 Dominique Guillo Part 3: Epistemological Perspectives 193 Chapter 11 Updating Evolutionary Epistemology 195 Christophe Heintz Chapter 12 Intuitions in Science Education and the Public Understanding of Science 223 Stefaan Blancke, Koen B. Tanghe, and Johan Braeckman Chapter 13 Vindicating Science — By Bringing It Down 243 Maarten Boudry and Massimo Pigliucci Part 4: Thematic Bibliography 259 Thematic Bibliography of Publications on Different Perspectives on Science and Culture 261 Kris Rutten, Stefaan Blancke, and Ronald Soetaert Index 271 Acknowledgments We thank Purdue University Press for its interest in our work and support to publish Perspectives on Science & Culture, and Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, for- mer series editor, for his encouragement to pursue this project. We also thank the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for their valuable comments. Stefaan Blancke acknowledges the financial support of Ghent University (BOF13/24J/089) and the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO, project number G001013N). Finally, we would like to thank the authors for their valu- able contributions. vii Introduction Perspectives on Science and Culture Kris Rutten, Stefaan Blancke, and Ronald Soetaert This edited volume in the Comparative Cultural Studies Series explores the intersection between scientific understanding and cultural representation from an interdisciplinary perspective. The contributions in this volume analyze pop- ular representations of science and scientific discourse from the perspectives of rhetorical criticism, comparative cultural studies, narratology, educational stud- ies, discourse analysis, the cognitive sciences, and naturalized and evolutionary epistemology. As such, the volume fits within the theoretical and methodolog- ical framework of comparative cultural studies as a contextual approach to the study of culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. The main objective of this volume is to explore how particular cognitive predispositions and cultural representations both shape and distort the public debate about scientific con- troversies, the teaching and learning of science, and the development of science itself. Theoretically, this volume will integrate, on the one hand, C. P. Snow’s concept of the two cultures (science versus the humanities) and Jerome Bruner’s confrontation between narrative and logico-scientific modes of thinking and, on the other hand, cognitive and epistemological approaches to human cognition and culture, including science. From this unique conciliatory framework, the volume explores how narra- tives and other cultural representations transform complex scientific issues into digestible bits of information based on particular selections and deflections. Some of the contributions analyze how scientific representations and metaphors of science take shape in pictures, cartoons, and television broadcasts, but also in novels and popular magazines. Others specifically focus on the implications of these representations and (mis)understandings for science education, both in ix x Introduction formal and informal educational settings. Thematically, the contributions focus on a wide range of current debates about evolutionary theory, global warming, genetic modification, and so on. As such, it indirectly engages with discussions pertaining to the politics of science. The aim of this volume is to engage in the ongoing debate about the public understanding of science and is original in its interdisciplinary scope, ranging from philosophy, cognitive psychology, anthro- pology, and biology to literature, cultural studies, and rhetoric. Public Understanding of Science There has been increasing attention on the valorization of scientific research, in combination with a growing public debate about the uses and applications of sci- entific findings for social and economic purposes (Benneworth and Jongbloed). Media coverage of scientific findings plays an important role in shaping the public understanding of science and as such creates a context for socio-ethical debates about the application and development of scientific research (van Dijck). However, the communication of science is always, inevitably partial and this partiality raises issues of authority, creates potential misunderstandings, and complicates the public debate about science (Tietge). One of the main aims of science communication and programs aimed at increasing scientific literacy is to create a better public understanding of science and to emphasize its wider rele- vance to society (Gross, “Roles”). Science communication often consists of a one-way flow from scientists to the general public by accommodating scientific findings to a nonexpert audience. Such a unilateral approach is indeed important for transferring relevant scientific knowledge to society but runs the risk of disregarding the contexts that give sci- ence its public significance and the ambiguities that arise from particular framings in the public debate (Gross, “Roles” and Rhetoric). Public concerns and opinions from stakeholders are often seen as (unwarranted) anxieties or vested interests rather than “assets” that have a role to play in the debate about scientific develop- ments and applications (Bauer; Bauer, Shukla and Allum). There is an entangled and reciprocal relationship between science and society and therefore there is a need for a better understanding of the accommodation of scientific findings from experts to lay audiences, for an understanding of the different positions in the sci- entific and the public debate, and for an integration of scientific developments and the needs of society (Fahnestock; Gross, “Roles” and Rhetoric; Tietge, Rational). For example, there is an ongoing body of research on the public under- standing of genetics. Although there have been vast scientific advances in DNA Perspectives on Science and Culture xi technology, the socio-ethical and the legal and political debates still remain very contested and ambivalent. In her seminal work, Imagenation, José van Dijck has shown that the public imagination of genetics has undergone an important trans- formation during the decades that this branch of scientific research took shape, as the synopsis of her book notes: “From news stories of DNA strings escaping from our laboratories to the ongoing debates over bioethics, from James Watson and The Double Helix to the Human Genome Project, Van Dijck portrays the ‘imaginary’ tools of genetics as players in a theater of representation — a multi- layered contest in which special interest groups and professional organizations mobilize images in a heated debate over the meaning of genetics” (van Dijck). Popular representations of genetics do not necessarily reflect the advancement of genetic technology but these cultural accounts offer the repertoires and images with which different stakeholders debate the social, legal,
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