The relations between scientific and cultural discourse: do they say what they do?

Abstract

In his recent book, Against &/ativism (1997), Christopher Norris weighs in on the "heated debate about various forms of cultural-relativist (or social-constructivist) thinking that would appear to undermine all accepted standards of truth, objectivity and reputable method in the natural sciences."l Norris, a self-identified causal realist, traces the controversy back to "one or another version of the 'linguistic tum' whose effect is to promote generalized skepticism with regard to scientific knowledge"