May 5, 2000

The Limits of Power in Science

To the Editor:

Frederick Grinnell seeks a middle ground between naive realists and social constructivists, and offers an attractive explanation of his argument in the form of a parable about baseball umpires ("The Practice of Science at the Edge of Knowledge," Opinion, March 24). He depicts "postmodern" sociologists of science as claiming that scientific facts are "mere social constructs, instead of reality," and that reality is determined by power -- like the