Conventional construction of science: Examples of current science-religion debate in Turkey

In this study, the definitional changes in the historical process of science are discussed in the context of the ontological relationship of human with knowledge. The main focus of these changes is to see how the human-knowledge relationship based on the human-nature relationship has gained meaning in the current social conditions. Under these conditions, it will be tried to explain how human beings are bound to the existing boundaries in defining knowledge by conceptualizing the fragmental perception. All chapters are shaped around nature and social science examples, which adhere to the chronological process of science history and knowledge sociology, to prove the concrete existence of this concept. Thus, the first part will emphasize the current social conditions that lead to the narrative of Science Revolution, which is the belief of the absolute mind of science of the 19th century. The second section -again in the influence of the current social conditions- focuses on refraction in the definitions of science's universal and certainty in the 21th century, how produced a different perception of science. It will be seen from the examples examined in these two sections that science is a conventional construction and has gained meaning from the definitions that have been shaped by sociological conditions from the beginning. In the third part, the modernization process starting from the 19th century in Turkey, the definition of knowledge (science and religion) affected by the science discourse imported from Europe, it will focus to differ from period to period in their mutual relations. This focus will show how this mutual relationship is parallel to the sociological conditions and current discourse of science. This thesis is to try to prove the necessity of the fragmental perception mechanism that human, who has to think within the limits of existing knowledge, is used to produce meaning for himself and nature. Key Words: Sociology of Knowledge, Sociology of Science, History of Science, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Conventionalism, Fragmental Perception