Kuhn is Many Guises

Science and Consensus: "'Joi Ito posted a very interesting review of a book entitled Science in Action by Bruno Latour. The focus of the book (or at least of Joi's take on it) is that scientific "facts" are really a form of what some people have called consensus reality. (I point to the wikipedia definition for convenience, but I think that the term may have been coined by psychologist Charles Tart.) That is, facts are not really facts at all, but rather postulates that have become generally accepted through a process of social consensus-building. Many is the "fact" that never achieves that status because no one pays attention to the postulate or observation in question and so no consensus is built."