IGNOU FST CHAPTER 1 Q4

Q)Do you think stability lead to social stagnation and eventually stagnation in science?
Ans)History of science is a story of how social and economic pressures arising out of a given form society necessitate particular inventions and innovations.These innovations are gradually used and absorbed by dominant social forces to stabilize their domination.The stability eventually leads to social stagnation. For example stagnation in a given geographical area or society does not always lead to radical changes in the same area or society. New ideas are sometimes transmitted through human interaction, due to trade and other means of communication to other geographical locations.There the society may be conductive to a rapid change.Again in a given society successive changes may be rapid in a particular epoch.In a different epoch in the same locality changes may be extremely slow.To understand this we have to understand the specific social, cultural and economic conditions of a given society.