Chapter 8 - Understanding Our Knowing

Summary

Scientific knowledge, like other forms of knowledge, is a ‘culture’; that is, it is embedded in practices, relations and histories. The stand-off between ‘science’ and ‘religion’ has a lot to do with the failure to recognize this and with the anxiety that any concessions here will damage the truth claims of science. It is argued that a view of truthfulness that sees it as a sustainable, corrigible set of practices in coping with an environment we do not control or possess allows us to maintain a form of realism while acknowledging that there may be diverse sets of practices which legitimately embody the same principle of sustainable engagement – including the practices of traditional religious faith.