ABSTRACT
Casti, in 1989, published a delightful book entitled Paradigms Lost with the subtitle Images of Man in the Mirror of Science. With that subtitle, Casti was suggesting that science holds up a looking glass in which we, women and men, see who and what we are, who and what we were, and who and what we may become. Some tinkering with that subtitle provides us with a looking glass that reflects a somewhat different point of view, one that is the theme of this discussion on historical perspectives: Images of Science in the Mirror of Man (read Humankind). By this we repeat what was stated earlier in this text – science is a human undertaking and thus influenced by historical, social, and cultural factors. We hold up a looking glass to science so that it can be seen as part of the human drama that was, is, and is yet to be. Unlike any other member of the animal kingdom, humans are a theory-making species. It is people who make theories, not the other way around.
