Scientific Change and the Rise of Scientism in the 21st Century

A Proposal for Activity of STS in Contemporary Japan

Abstract

　 This article deals with the change of science, which has begun in the mid-20th century and is rapidly growing now. The science studies of the wider sense, which include history of science, sociology of science, philosophy of science and STS, are not always successful in treating this new trend. Rather, facing at the new challenge the science studies might be reformed.

　 In the 21st century, with the rapid growth of capacity of computers, the computational science, the data science, and the Bayesian statistics are also growing. By means of such new mathematical science, changing traditional disciplines and new disciplines are now emerging. We may call these disciplines as “the science of the 21st century style”. We discuss the characteristics of this “the science of the 21st century style”, and the rise of new scientism, which is developing with the new disciplines. Also, we would propose the problems, which should be treated by the STS of Japan. In order to do these works, the internal studies of “the science of the 21st century style” should be necessary.