Changes

== History ==  

== History ==  

Postmodern doubts about the objectivity and neutrality of science arose in the mid-1900s from Michael Polanyi’s ''Personal Knowledge'' and Thomas Kuhn’s ''The Structure of Scientific Revolution''. Kuhn points out that science is not merely a progressive and incremental discipline that studies and records facts. So-called facts can be understood and interpreted in a variety of ways depending on the worldview assumptions of the scientist. Kuhn further asserts that scientific [[theory|theories]] are often not discarded due to being proven wrong, but rather older theories tend to die out along with their proponents.{{#tag:ref|cf."An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning." Max Planck, The Philosophy of Physics<ref>{{cite book|title=The philosophy of physics|author=Max Planck|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company, inc.|year=1936|page=97|url=http://books.google.com/books?ei=7y4zUbPQCe_64QS80IDwAQ&id=WpTvAAAAMAAJ&dq=Max+Planck%2C+The+Philosophy+of+Physics&q=converting#search_anchor}}</ref>|group=note}} Then the new and creative theories attract the attention of younger scientists who, in turn, promote their theories over the older ones. A current scientific theory is just a momentary ''current theory'' that will be replaced by another ''current theory'' in the future. For that reason, science cannot tell us what is real, only what scientists believe to be the case at that particular period in history of humankind.<ref name="AllAboutWorldview"/>  

Postmodern doubts about the objectivity and neutrality of science arose in the mid-1900s from Michael Polanyi’s ''Personal Knowledge'' and Thomas Kuhn’s ''The Structure of Scientific Revolution''. Kuhn points out that science is not merely a progressive and incremental discipline that studies and records facts. So-called facts can be understood and interpreted in a variety of ways depending on the worldview assumptions of the scientist. Kuhn further asserts that scientific [[theory|theories]] are often not discarded due to being proven wrong, but rather older theories tend to die out along with their proponents.{{#tag:ref|cf."An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning." Max Planck, The Philosophy of Physics<ref>{{cite book|title=The philosophy of physics|author=Max Planck|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company, inc.|year=1936|page=97|url=http://books.google.com/books?ei=7y4zUbPQCe_64QS80IDwAQ&id=WpTvAAAAMAAJ&dq=Max+Planck%2C+The+Philosophy+of+Physics&q=converting#search_anchor}}</ref>|group=note}} Then the new and creative theories attract the attention of younger scientists who, in turn, promote their theories over the older ones. From this perspective, a current scientific theory is just a momentary ''current theory'' that will be replaced by another ''current theory'' in the future. For that reason, postmodernists held that science cannot tell us what is real, only what scientists believe to be the case at that particular period in history of humankind.<ref name="AllAboutWorldview"/>

== Notable examples ==

== Notable examples ==