The Science Wars- A Dialog
« The Science Wars- A Dialog » English translation by Ashraf Noor in Common Knowledge vol.8 n°1, pp.701-79 Winter 2002
She -- So you're a sociologist and you do research on scientists? Well, then you can explain something to me. People in my lab are forever talking about the "Science Wars.” What's all the fuss about?
He -- If only I knew! I'd know what front to fight on, what equipment to carry, and what camouflage to wear. As things are, people are firing in all directions. It isn't easy to know what's going on.
She -- I've heard that the main thing is to avoid relativism. But I'm a physicist, and that presents a real difficulty. Without relativity there’d be no possibility of making measurements and we’d each be prisoners, to all eternity, in some single point of view. In my discipline, we need the relativity of frames of reference in order even to begin work. I have a special need for relativity because I work on events close to the Big Bang. You don’t need relativity, too?
