Science and Culture - Inalienable Co-determinants of Human Progress: Implications for Science Education and Administration

Abstract

Science is a process of establishing the knowledge and understandings of the principles and dynamics shaping the interaction of people among themselves and with the natural world. Culture is an integrated system of shared beliefs, norms, values, and understandings that shape the way people live and interact with each other and with the natural world. These beliefs, norms, values, and understandings are in turn shaped by people’s perception of their natural world. Philosophically therefore, both science and culture, presently and potentially, have the power to shape how people interact with each other and with nature. In this paper, the author explores the components of the common boundaries of science and culture as tools for human interaction among themselves and with their life-world. The author then makes a case for the inalienable mutual influences of science and culture, as co-determinants and co-drivers of human progress. Implications of this co-determinism for science education and administration are also explored.