Opening Statements - Cover Sheet SCI Home | SCI Faculty Page | Case Notes | Reference List | Users Notes

Author - John Shepherd - Fall 1997

Case Purpose The idea for this case came from David Nelson during the Summer 1997 SCI Faculty Workshop. It is a way to open the course by having the students think about different kinds of knowledge, and the ways they get it.

Relation to Texts This general opening than may help people see science from a more general perspective, so they are more sympathetic to Ziman's notion of science as unique in terms of its social structure and content.

Description of Case Materials The case consists of a list of statements that might be construed as religious faith, scientific fact, common sense, ethical valuations, social convention, etc. A second handout consists of a scheme describing ways that we get knowledge and values.

Case Use The students are given the list of statements and asked to rank the statements according to how certain they are that the statements are correct. After they do this individually, they try to reach a consensus ranking in small groups and then as a whole class. These discussions usually revolve around differences in perspective of students and serve to identify realms of knowledge in the students' lives.

Reference List Lewis, Hunter. 1990. A Question Of Values. Harper Collins, New York. pp 10-11.