以往學界常認為，STS是從孔恩開始的，但為何孔恩與STS有著多年的緊張關係？在STS興起的60、70年代，世界有許多的戰爭、抗議、與後殖民時代的開展，STS的起頭，「科學知識的社會學」（SSK）是如何因緣際會而浮現的？本書不認為孔恩的《科學革命的結構》是導致STS誕生的關鍵原因，更企圖探討一個孔恩讓位後的SSK新視野：包括她的緣起，及她在哲學、人類學、科學史三個方向的多重建構，她的社會網絡與系譜關係。最後，回應那個批判的時代，本書討論了70年代初的孔恩，以及後來80年代SSK與科技史社群的「新當代批判意識」。 本書作者主要關注英、美70年代以來第一、二代的SSK學者、人物、論戰、以及辛勤編織的重重論述：他們與英國哲學家如維根斯坦、社會人類學家如Mary Douglas、還有科學史家如Paul Forman等共同建構的歷史過程。透過這個過程，使我們的STS視野更開闊也更深入，同時強化了我們今天的科技認識、科技與社會的反思、還有科技的政治。本書從東亞與臺灣的STS觀點出發，兼具反身性的角度，打造一個「橫看」近代科學的新視野，並指出過去歐美STS人在回顧自己歷史中的許多問題。此為本書在STS研究領域所作的貢獻。 Why was there a tension between Thomas Kuhn and STS over two decades? In the years of 1960-70s, when wars, protests, and post-colonial developments were engaged and happening, how was the origin of STS, ie., SSK (sociology of scientific knowledge), emerged in this big time? This book rejects the folk legend that Kuhn’s The Structure of scientific revolutions was a major cause of STS’ birth. Rather, it traces a genealogical history for the first two decades of STS, about its emergence, and especially about its multiple historical/social constructions in three orientations: philosophy (eg., of Wittgenstein), social anthropology (eg., of Mary Douglas), and history of science (eg., of Paul Forman). Furthermore, in responding to their times, this book discusses Kuhn’s social activities in early 1970s, and SSK cooperated with historians of science in constructing a “new contemporary critical consciousness” in 1980s. Although this book was about the first two or three generations of STS, about their strategies and debates primarily in UK and US, it was written from a contemporary east Asian STS perspective, and also a reflexive, genealogical viewpoint by someone who is also a STS practitioner in Taiwan. Its aim is to weave and also to recast a new horizon to gaze upon the modern sciences.