The Narrative Turn Of Science Communication And Its Phylosophical Thoughts

Science, as one of the most important achievements of human cognition and practice development, has brought unprecedented changes to human society. It has also utterly overturned our previous views on the objective world. The expansion of scientific knowledge has experienced the popularization of science stage, public understanding of science stage and has entered Science Communication stage. In that stage, science community, by the employment of various media, spreads science, technology and related methods, ideas and cultures among the public through "democratic" and "interactive" ways, so that the public can grasp science, participate in science and communicate with science. Science Communication is being presented with new opportunities as Big Data, digitization penetrates every aspect of society.However, it is confronted with many problems as well. On top of the list is the image problem. Science, as a vital epistemology, overturned religion and liberated people from the darkness of the Middle Ages during the Age of Enlightenment, but today it has become a new religion ruling people’s life. The thought forms of humanities, arts have been gradually marginalized. In the academic society, natural science takes pride in being accurate and objective, holding doubts about the truth acquired by social science, resulting in the prevailing of scientism. Secondly, the abuse of scientific technologies has led to the problems of global warming, nuclear security, food security and clone technology, all of which are deep concerns of every member of human society. Thirdly, the spreading of pseudoscience and anti-science are also obstacles of science development and communication.To solve those problems and improve the image of science, we should theoretically reexamine the fundamental elements of science communication, epistemologically redefine the content and features of science communication and methodologically seek convergence of horizons between public understanding and science communication, so that a possible way for the theoretical study of science communication could be provided. Therefore, this article mainly talks about the following aspects. Firstly, the history of science communication and related theories are reviewed. The current problems in the theory and practice of science communication are pointed out. The appearance and resolution of those problems need a theoretical reexamination of science communication and a new philosophical pivot. Only in this way can the real problems of science communication be fundamentally solved.Secondly, science discourse is studied in an attempt to epistemologically return to the humanity nature of science. Science discourse, as the discourse of the science community, is fundamentally the same as other discourses. There is no objective world beyond the explanation of discourse. Science discourse relies on the history, culture and social context of the science community. It is a part of the culture history made by subjects. Moreover, the rhetoric of speech are an integral part of science discourse. The discourse analysis of traditional logical positivism lay emphasis on logical and mathematical analysis and tried to abstract a general and sheer form of discourse to preserve the objectivity and impartiality of science knowledge. However, science constructivism treated discourse as a part of science practice and found the social factors behind science knowledge through discourse analysis. The principle of discourse analysis is that science discourse "wrote" the present science and discourse is primary in the explanation of the world. Discourse and its analysis provides the basis for the humanity nature of science and lays the epistemological foundation for the narrative turn of science communication.Thirdly, the life world in studied. The living world is the field where science and the public coexist. It is original existence that provides basis for various forms of cognition, including science. The "life world" theory was put forward by Edmund Husserl to solve the modern science crisis, criticize and reexamine the traditional epistemology. In the life world, there is no separation of subjectivity and objectivity, general logicism or blind worship of technology, so in the context of living world, science could open its way for the public living in the context. In the life world, people’s cognition has features of multiplicity and heterogeneity, which is significant for filling the gap between two cultures and avoiding the dominance of scientism. Furthermore, the lifeg world not only emphasizes man’s subjectivity, but also the intersubjectivity of discourse and behavior, which provides a new real foundation for science communication, thus convergence of horizons between science explanation and public understanding is realized.Finally, the article discusses how science communication can take the narrative turn, and talks about its philosophical significance. The narrative turn of science communication is to introduce science knowledge into people’s daily communication and practice, into the historical and cultural narrations. As narrative stresses the intersubjectivity and convergence of horizons between the narrator and the receiver, it could solve the contradiction between explanation and understanding during science communication. Through the reconstitution of science knowledge in the frames of narratology, science could be comprehended as a type of human narrative. This is a new way for science communication meteorologically, which could bring science back to the life world of humans and enable humans to find a way from necessity to liberation.