Avui he participat en un grup de treball en què ha sortit un debat sobre la definició de cultura científica. Es tracta d’un mot amb diverses acepcions tan al diccionari com en els sistemes d’informació de les organitzacions.
M’he trobat, per exemple, amb que Emilio Muñoz (CSIC), al seu document La cultura científica, la percepción
pública y el caso de la biotecnología, diu que
El Diccionario del Español Actual (Seco, Andrés y Ramos, 1999) se encuentran tres acepciones de cultura:
i) Cultura como conjunto de conocimientos adquiridos por la persona que permite desarrollar el sentido crítico y el juicio;
ii) como instrucción o conjunto de conocimientos no especializados que se supone debe poseer toda persona educada;
iii) o como conjunto de modos de vida, conocimientos y grado de desarrollo de una colectividad humana o de una épocai
És interessant veure també què s’entèn per cultura ciéntífica en el sentit d’hàbits. Scientific culture: Great expectations és un`web que ho deixa força clar.
Sobre què és la cultura científic, en un article de la evista Public Understanding of Science, (Vol. 9, No. 1, 43-58 (2000)) s’hi diu La culture scientifique nous demande de vivre un effort de la pensée. Gaston Bachelard, Le rationalisme appliqué (p. 214). i llavors
In the United States and the United Kingdom, for example, the usual term is public understanding of science, but the term scientific literacy is also often used. In Canada, government documents prefer the term public awareness. In documents printed by the governments of the European Union, France, and Quebec, the notion has been extended to firms and innovation, such that the term has become culture scientifique, technologique, et industrielle.
As with the notion of culture, it is perhaps best to leave the notion of scientific culture to intuition rather than try to circumscribe it within a strict definition.
This consideration brings us to propose the following definition of scientific and technological (S&T) culture: scientific and technological culture is the expression of all the modes through which individuals and society appropriate science and technology.
We propose a third model, in which science and technology are from the start defined as being part of culture. The model assumes that S&T culture comes first. Science and technology, together being a social phenomenon based on collective effort, must necessarily be included as forms of the social organization of culture.
Val la pena veure també aquest divertit article sobre els científics: de fet, una subcultura. La UNESCO defineix cultura científica com PATTERN OF INTELLECTUAL AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR BASED ON SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE..
I finalment, m’agrada el que en diuen uns investigadors de Luxemburg, que per cert participen a la Researchers’ Night 2008:
According to a definition by Gilbert and Stocklmayer, two Australian science communicators, scientific culture must not be confused with “scientific knowledge, that’s to say the knowledge and the understanding of scientific facts, ideas and policies. Scientific culture is above all a set of attitudes, a predisposition towards science and technology, which is based on personal beliefs and feelings, ultimately leading to an understanding and acceptance of the significance of science and technology for personal, social and economic life. A society which has a scientific culture is a society which has incorporated and appropriated science and technology (including the social sciences!) in its collective identity just like, for example, culture or history.