Hasok Chang

thumb|Hasok Chang Hasok Chang (born March 26, 1967) is a South Korean-born American historian and philosopher of science currently serving as the Hans Rausing Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and a board member of the Philosophy of Science Association. Quotes It is quite amazing, first of all, what 19th century people were able to achieve without having any of our modern notions. So that's in a way humbling because everything from the battery itself to electromagnetism to dynamos and generators and electric light and right down to Maxwellian electrodynamics. All of that was achieved without the notion of the electron or the modern notion of ions so that's quite interesting. If we leave the notion of truth, as for example, correspondence to the inaccessible reality, then we're just going to get stuck with skepticism. So if you put up an impossible idea of knowledge, then when science inevitably is seen to fail to meet that then we're going to get the reaction as with climate change deniers, who say: "Well, so scientist don't know anything either and then I'm entitled to my opinion. Because why should I believe the scientists opinion?" I have devoted a lot of time and energy on maintaining and developing history of philosophy link. So I have my particular ideas about how that should be done but I think the general lesson is that we need to understand science as something carried out by human beings. As well as human beings in social relation with each other and that is to say, Science has a history. Science is an inherently historical process. And the product of science, scientific knowledge is also going to be inherently historical. Now that that's too quick as the various argument but that's the spirit in which I approach the work. External links Category:1967 births Category:Historians from the United States