1. Home
  2. Issues
2020
No. Nr (13), Oral History - Emotions 2019
No. (12), Public History 2018
No. (11), Cultural History of Knowledge 2017
No. (10), Anthropology – Folklore – History 2016
No. (9), Cultural Heritage 2015
No. (8), Anthropology and History 2014
No. 1 (6), Semiotics of History No. 2 (7), History and Gender 2013
No. 1 (4), On Representation No. 2 (5), Genealogies of Culture 2012
No. 2 (3), Readings of the Past No. 1 (2), Anthropology / history of the Contemporary World 2011
No. 1-2 (1), Preliminaries
ISSN 2084–1418
The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version

2018, No. (11), Cultural History of Knowledge

Jaromir Jeszke
The role of myths about science in social debate

PDF version
Keywords: myth, science, social communication, dissemination of science, public debate

Abstract:
The use of the myth concept for research on science has a long tradition. The classic definition of the myth had to be adapted to this area of interpretation. Its core was considered to be 'sacralizing' scientific content, excluded for social, cultural, political or other reasons from standard verification procedures. Changing the traditional status of such content would be tantamount to a violation of the social taboo. The image of science was falsified. Historical and cultural analysis will include selected social, political, ideological, philosophical and other phenomena related to the creation and functioning of science myths. The author shows examples of the construction and function of myths about science. The myth category becomes a capacious and handy tool for interpreting the phenomena that take place around science in the public debate.

About Author:
JAROMIR JESZKE - the historian of science and anthropologist of knowledge; doctor of humanities in the field of ethnology, doctor habilitatus in the humanities in the field of history. Associate Professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. E-mail: jeszke@amu.edu.pl. ORCID 000-0002-1257-6061.
Go back