Valuing Science: A Turkish–American comparison

Abstract

The process of modernization began in Turkey under the reform government of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881–1938). Turkey officially became a secular nation seeking to develop a modern economy with modern science and technology and political democracy. Turkey also has long been, and remains, a deeply religious society. Specifically, the practice of Islam is widespread, which raises the important question: whether the path of modernization in Turkey will look more like the American pattern or the European, where the Europeans are much more philosophically secular than the Americans? One way to look at this question is by examining how people value science vis‐à‐vis other important aspects of society and culture. Hence, our study is a comparative look at Turkish and American opinions about science. The American society, which is certainly a very modern society, is of particular interest in Turkey, given the significant religiosity of the American people, making the American and Turkish societies similar at least on this one significant point. Although we do not have comparable European data at this time, our Turkish–American comparison can be suggestive of whether or not Turkey is likely to follow the American pattern of a highly modernized yet deeply religious society.

Keywords:

• Attitudes
• Comparative
• Developing world
• Modernization
• Religion
• Survey
• TSSI
• Valuation of science

Notes

1. Although there is substantial literature on the distinctions between science and technology, it is nonetheless common practice for governments to tout science as the engine that drives technology and thus economic development. As a result, it is common that public perception conflates science and technology. This certainly is the case in both the USA and Turkey.

2. The literature often refers to a ‘scientific worldview’ (e.g., Lederman, 1996), whereas we have used ‘scientific perspective.’ It is easy to fall into the practice of referring to a ‘scientific worldview’ because of the frequent use of this term. However, as noted by Cobern (1991), a worldview is expansive and exhaustive, reaching beyond science while subsuming science. We use ‘perspective’ to indicate this more limited sense of science.

3. With an instrument such as the TSSI, a degree of judgment has to be used in deciding on minimally acceptable values. In the case of these two items, for their conceptual value, we were disinclined to drop them; however, the Turkish measurement expert advising on the project was adamant that the loadings were statistically too low and that the remaining items were sufficient to support each category.

4. Of the items in the Turkish version that we decided to retain, one had a relatively low value of Cronbach alpha (0.47). As with Note 3, we were disinclined to drop items that we could support conceptually. In the case of this item, the Turkish measurement expert advising on the project was agreeable.

5. The middle position in a scale like this one is typically referred to as ‘neutral’ and we have followed that practice. However, it is unlikely that the respondents are truly neutral, as in having no opinion one way or another. Therefore, in our ‘Discussion’ section, we use the word ‘ambiguous’ to indicate that the respondents are probably not sure exactly what they think about a given assertion.

6. There are traditional Turkish medical practices that include the use of medicinal herbs and this is an area of active research (e.g., Dole, 2004; Uzun et al., 2004); there is no evidence, however, that the practice of traditional medicine is a hindrance to the acceptance of modern scientific medicine, at least not in urban areas. We suspect that traditional Turkish medicine is an ‘alternative’ medical approach in much the way that North America and Europe have their alternatives to science‐based medicine.