Chapter 7 Science and Technology
Modern science, Borgmann defines, as the typical way in which one in the modern era takes up with reality. Modern science lets the world appear as actual in a realm of possible worlds. Modern technology reflects a determination to act transformatively on these possibilities. (p27) He goes on to say that given the very limited common knowledge of science, it is clear that there cannot be on the part of the public either an explicit knowledge of the fine structure of things or any grounded knowledge of just how these things may be technologically modified, replaced, or supplemented. (p.28)
The public accepts scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations but because they occur within a horizon of general familiarity. As science infers new insights and possibilities it fosters new world views.
Historically, science was a liberating event, a breaking of the fetters of superstition, ignorance, and dogmatism. (p.28)
The rise of science as a power without guidance for the world may have substantive consequences in its own right, and technology may be foremost among them. Technology ceaselessly transforms the world along abstract and artificial lines. (p.29)
To the realist current science at its core is true; true in the sense that its theories give us the best representation of the general structure of reality. The realist then, admits that technology if it is the companion of Science, is equally true, therefore one can criticize technology only in violating the truth. (p. 30)
Sciences reveal in a principled manner the general structure of reality and that resulting insight is known to provide greater transformative power. Scientific knowledge is a necessary condition of modern technology.