“科學戰爭”中的迷信、騙局、誤解與爭辯：評Gross & Levitt《高級迷信》與Sokal & Bricmont《知識的騙局》中譯本

Superstitions, Impostures, Misunderstandings and Debates in the Science Wars: A Review of the Chinese Translation of Gross & Levitt's Higher Superstition and Sokal & Bricmont's Fashionable Nonsense

陳信行(Hsin-Hsing Chen)

《台灣社會研究季刊》 45期 (2002/03) Pp. 173-207

https://doi.org/10.29816/TARQSS.200203.0004

摘要

《高級迷信》與《知識的騙局》兩書的中譯完成介紹所謂的「科學戰爭」辯論到台灣所需的一半工作。這場熱烈的論戰表面上是關於科學與技術研究領域中的社會建構取徑的價值以及方法論／知識論相對主義的問題。它反映了冷戰之後、西雅圖事件之前美國學界高度焦慮的知識氛圍。然而，「科學戰爭」的影響超出了原來的戰場，在一些議題上引起了有意義的辯論，如：科學民主化的問題、美國左翼的戰略問題、以及後殖民主義把科學與「跨文化的真理」的概念批判為西方宰制的意識型態的問題。在兩本書中，《高級迷信》一再地使用稻草人攻擊而使得其論述品質低落；而雖然《知識的騙局》則是一個謹慎的防禦，集中在批評後現代人文學者誤用自然科學概念。Sokal & Bricmont批評科學的社會研究之中有科學主義的傾向，本文從科學研究中圍繞著「強綱領」及其他社會建構派研究方案的辯論來討論，並發現這個批評具有一定的價值。

關鍵字

科學與技術研究 ； 社會建構論 ； 相對主義 ； 科學哲學 ； 後現代主義 ； 後殖民主義

並列摘要

The Chinese translation of Gross & Levitt's Higher Superstition and Sokal & Bricmont's Fashionable Nonsense amounts to half of the necessary work for introducing the so-called ”Science Wars” to Taiwan. This highly flaming debate, ostensibly on the validity of the social-constructivist approaches in the field of Science and Technology Studies and the problems of methodological/ epistemological relativism, actually reflects the deeply anxious intellectual milieu in the post-Cold War, pre-Seattle US academe. The ramifications of the ”Science Wars,” however, exceed the original field of battle, and raise meaningful debates on issues such as democratization of science, the strategies for the Left in the US, and the post-colonial critiques of science and the idea of trans-cultural truth as an ideology of Western domination. Between the two books, Higher Superstition is found to be of questionable intellectual quality, especially for its repeated use of straw-man attacks, while Fashionable Nonsense a more cautious defense against the misuse of natural-scientific language by the post-modern humanists despite the flamboyant image of one of the authors. Sokal & Bricmont's critique of scientificism in the social studies of science is discussed and found warranted in light of the history of debates on the ”Strong Programme” and other social-constructivist research schemes in science studies.

並列關鍵字

science and technology studies ； social constructivism ； relativism ； philosophy of science ； postmodernism ； post-colonialism

參考文獻

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Bloor, D.(1991).Knowledge and Social Imagery.Chicago:Chicago University Press.

Bricmont, J., Sokal, A.(2000).Reply to Turnbull, Krips, Dusek and Fuller.Metascience.9(3)