Science and Technology: What They Are and Why Their Relation Matters

Abstract

AbstractThe relationship(s) between science and technology can be conceived in different ways depending on how each of the two concepts is defined. This chapter traces them both back to the medieval tradition of knowledge classification and its notions of science and mechanical arts. Science can be defined either in the limited sense of the English language or in a broader sense that includes the humanities. It is argued that the latter approach provides a more adequate delimitation from an epistemological point of view. The word “technology” can refer either to knowledge about practical activities with tools and machines (a common sense in German and many other languages) or to these activities, tools, and machines themselves (the common sense of the word in English). Based on conceptual clarifications of the two concepts, four classes of philosophically interesting questions about science-technology relationships are outlined: (1) the relation between science in general and technological science, (2) the role of science in technological practice, (3) the role of technological practice in science, and (4) the relationship between science and the Aristotelian notion of productive arts (that is more general than the notion of technological practice).KeywordsBroad SenseTechnological ScienceKnowledge DisciplineKnowledge ClassificationConceptual ClarificationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.