Does Technology “Construct” Scientific Reality?

Abstract

The question of the objectivity of knowledge and, especially in the modern age, of the objectivity of scientific knowledge, is a recurrent issue in the history of philosophy and of science. Contemporary philosophical discussions again raise this issue by emphasizing the epistemological influence of technological means in scientific research. The technological procedures upon which theoretical physics and cosmology depend give rise to charges of reductionism or epistemological naivete. According to such arguments, science rests on a technological reduction that leads in practice to a peculiar “construction” of scientific objects. As a consequence, questions are raised about the true limits of scientific objectivity and the general validity of science.