This article focuses on "uncertainty"--ways in which scientists recognize and analyze limits in their studies and conclusions. We distinguish uncertainty from (un)trustworthiness--ways in which scientific reports can be affected by conscious deception or unconscious bias. Scientific journal articles typically include analyses and…

Modern democratic societies tend to appeal to the authority of science when dealing with important challenges and solving their problems. Nevertheless, distrust in science remains widespread among the public, and, as a result, scientific voices are often ignored or discarded in favour of other perspectives. Though superficially…

Post-truth is a social condition that threatens the trust in science and people's critical thinking. This paper analyzes some of the educational responses to post-truth, claiming the potential contributions of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Some of the responses based on traditional epistemology, characterized as "epistemological…

Many authors blame postmodernism and studies on Sociology and Anthropology of Science (Science Studies) for the rise of relativism and anti-science movements. Despite such criticism, Science Studies have always been concerned with the construction of the "common world" (a shared reality), while the anti-science movement goes in the…

Our purpose in this article is to discuss the roles for HPSS in Science Education considering the crisis of COVID-19, as well as to think what Science Education could look like beyond the pandemic. Considering the context of a pandemic as a starting point, we defend in this article the thesis that contours of public controversy involving COVID-19…

This paper discusses essential elements of the philosophical works of Ludwik Fleck (1896-1961) and their potential interpretation for the teaching and learning of science. In the early twentieth century, Fleck made substantial contributions to understanding the sociological character of the nature of science and explaining the embedding of science…

Both self-organization and organization are important for the further development of the sciences: the two dynamics condition and enable each other. Commercial and public considerations can interact and "interpenetrate" in historical organization; different codes of communication are then "recombined". However,…

Understanding how individuals view the relationship between science and religion shows promise for explaining a range of aspects of teaching and learning in science. Several taxonomies, consisting of different views by which people relate science and religion, can be found in the philosophical literature. However, most of the science education…

That Intelligent Design Creationism rejects the methodological naturalism of modern science in favor of a premodern supernaturalist worldview is well documented and by now well known. An irony that has not been sufficiently appreciated, however, is the way that ID Creationists try to advance their premodern view by adopting (if only tactically) a…

This paper discusses the impact of contemporary scientific knowledge on worldviews. The first three sections provide epistemological background for the arguments that follow. Sections 2 and 3 discuss the reliable part of science, specifically the characterization, scope and limits of the present scientific canon. Section 4 deals with the mode of…

A common feature of contemporary science education curricula is the expectation that as well as learning science content, students will learn something "about" science--its nature, its history, how it differs from non-scientific endeavours, and its interactions with culture and society. These curricular pronouncements provide an "open cheque" for…

Contrasting two examples from 2005, a creationism-trial and a recent textbook, the article shows two different ways of employing social considerations to demarcate science from non-science. Drawing conclusions from the comparison, and citing some of the leading proponents of science studies, the paper argues for a novel perspective in teaching…

This essay details a public display of four steam engine models assembled in a Leiden orphanage courtyard in 1777. By examining the multiple purposes to which these engines were and could be put, alongside the various interests, goals and interpretations of their inventors, instructors and audience, the notion of a clear division between public…

This paper elaborates on the life and publications of Joseph Priestley, the eighteenth-century polymath. The paper outlines his particular place in the European Enlightenment; it stresses the importance of philosophy and worldview in his scientific work on pneumatic chemistry, the composition of air, and his discovery of the process of…