ABSTRACT
Addressing research questions and issues relevant to scientific translation requires reflection on two key concepts, science and translation. The concept of translation is critically examined in a variety of ways by translation scholars who seek greater understanding of the place of translation in the world. In the European and Anglophone context, philosophers of science began to address the cultural significance of science in the interwar years and after World War II, but the seminal work of Thomas Kuhn in the 1960s paved the way for the more extensive development of social studies of science during the 1970s and beyond. Constructivism contrasted with positivism and logical empiricism in focusing on how sciences and cultures are co-constitutive and co-evolving. Many fulfilled their didactic function through a strong normative emphasis on techniques for achieving terminological accuracy and precision of expression. Among the relatively small number of research contributions on the translation of science, a significant set is historiographical.
