Friday, May 10, 2013

[PHI 3800] Is science only for scientists?

Laura Snyder credits “The Philosophical Breakfast Club” with changing science in the following ways:
  1. Promoting an inductive method
  2. Advocating science for the public good
  3. Forming new scientific institutions
  4. Accepting external funding



An unintended consequence of this "professionalization of science," according to Snyder, is a rift between science and the rest of the world. As Snyder puts it:
Once scientists became members of a professional group, they were slowly walled off from the rest of us. This is the unintended consequence of the revolution that started with our four friends.
Is this a problem? Should science be "for the public" and "not only for scientists"?

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