RESEARCH-BASED CURRICULA

 


"[Modernity] is not some objective force removed from the constraints of culture - and it is certainly not the true and only wave of history.  It is merely a constellation of beliefs, convictions, and economic paradigms that represent one way of doing things - of going about the complex process of organizing human activities."

 

Edmund Wade Davis (2003)

 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

 

A web-based curriculum designed to clearly present  contemporary scientific understanding as it is.

 

RESOURCE OBJECTIVES


CLEARLY PRESENT OUR CONTEMPORARY SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING

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READILY ADMIT THE LIMITS OF OUR UNDERSTANDING

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INDICATE AREAS OF ACTIVE RESEARCH

 


While scientific research seeks, ultimately, to glean an objective understanding of ourselves and our world; all scientific researchers - including those recognized as contemporary, or experimental, researchers, are products of human culture, and therefore inherently subjective in how they conduct such research.

 

That being said, it is important to note that the mere presence of subjectivity does not warrant the dismissal of the scientific understanding we have accumulated thus far.  Rather, it should merely serve to remind us that there remains a great deal that we do not yet understand.  Within the context of contemporary scientific research, our subjectivities are most apparent in the fundamental assumptions which comprise the underlying theory from which all of our derived understanding extends.  These assumptions are that all physical systems are subject to the same material rules that appear to govern all of nature, and that as evolutionary systems, these systems are (without exception) the products of natural selection.

 

While these assumptions have allowed for a great deal of technological and theoretical advancements; a comprehensive understanding of the causal relationships between the innumerable systems and phenomena which comprise the breadth of human experience remains elusive.

 

US illustrator and anatomist Frank Netter once remarked that unlike writers, artists cannot write around those concepts and phenomena which are not fully understood.  While most traditional academic curricula make use of statistical models, and words such as generally, occasionally, etcetera to avoid admitting the limits of our contemporary understanding, the research-based curricula published herein shall seek to clearly indicate the beliefs which we hold regarding ourselves and our world, as well as addressing the question of why we hold these beliefs.

 

In other words, we shall seek to present our understanding of ourselves and our world as it is!

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

Website Design and Layout © 2006- Priyan Weerappuli

All Graphic/Textual Content © 2008- The Open Source Science Project, Inc.

Background Image Adapted from Photograph by Simon Veit-Wilson

 

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