The Social construction of knowledge is not about making stuff up Helen, and if we are going to engage those attacking science, we don't do ourselves any favours by mischaracterizing their position. And semantic slips can leave the door open.
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I'm not sure we're talking to the same people, Colin.
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Perhaps, but no social constructivist I'm aware of thinks it means just making stuff up.
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Lucky you. I encounter them all. the. time. I'd have no problem at all with people who mean 'provisional knowledge' or 'collected by humans according to socially developed methods & conveyed in language' by 'socially constructed' and can't imagine why anyone would. That's true.
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I think we're just talking past each other and should leave it here. I will try to remember to tag you in next time someone tells me science is just made up by straight, white men to oppress women & other minorities.
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I don't mind being tagged but I've stopped responding to lunatics. But social constructivism, particularly in relation to knowledge, is a very serious philosophical, and sociological tradition. The fact people misuse it shouldn't lead us to ignore its insights.
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I'm less interested in the serious philosophical & sociological tradition than what is happening right now in the world in relation to social constructivism, particularly blank-slatism. We're just not talking about the same things.
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Well these ideas are coming from somewhere. So the point, if we want to get things right, is not to engage in a blanket rejection. That's as foolhardy as them saying science is a deterministic form of religion.
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Motte and bailey.
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Colin is no postmodernist.
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