Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Michel Foucault wrote that science is a language of power. His adoption of Francis Bacon’s coupling of knowledge and power enabled him to equate Enlightenment science with oppression. More recent postmodern critics of science have taken their cue from Foucault’s work, and have argued that science is, among other things, a hegemonic form of Eurocentric male domination. These and similar claims prompted the now-famous “Sokal Hoax,” in which mathematical physicist Alan Sokal combined postmodern language and analysis with various elements of quantum physics to produce a parody on a possible postmodern approach to science. The article’s publication in Social Text sparked a debate over the nature and role of modern science, a debate which gains ever more relevance when considered on a global cultural scale.

The goals of this paper are to explore the adoption and/or rejection of western science in certain developing countries, and to outline what certain postmodern critics of science have said about the role of western science on a cultural level. Themes such as imperialism, universalism, and cultural particularism will be particularly emphasized.