E. M. Recio
SOC 495-001 Sociology of Bio-tech
Department of Sociology, Psychology and Anthropology
Drexel University, Philadelphia PA 19104
20 May 2001
Genetic research has been hailed as the milestone of humanity; the most influential and important endeavour of modern science. Everything from tone-deafness (the inability to register various audio frequencies and discern one from the others) to breast cancer has so far been attributed to a particular sequence of proteins in the nucleus of each of our cells. This, however is not so surprising if one takes into consideration the fact that modern science has been travelling along the path of biology to obtain simple answers to complex questions. Beginning with race, to facial features, to head features, to brain size and complexity, to cell research, to molecular biology and now the gene, scientists have been looking for an answer by continually delving deeper and deeper into the ``moving parts'' of the human body.
The aim of this essay is to make the reader aware of the endogenous and exogenous factors involved in the natural sciences, to realise that science is not a matter of objective truth, but is as dogmatic and self-sustaining as any religion. Indeed, it is no surprise that religion has now been replaced by science as scientific agents begin to explain the Truth `out there' as it really exists, which for the common man suffices as magic. The key concept in this discourse is the necessity of the postmodern weltenshaung. Postmodernism has several seminal themes which will be briefly explored to understand the thought process of science as paradigmatic.