By Philip Kitcher
During this successor to his pioneering Science, fact, and Democracy, the writer revisits the subject explored in his earlier work—namely, the demanding situations of integrating technological know-how, the main profitable knowledge-generating process of all time, with the issues of democracy. yet during this new paintings, the writer is going a ways past that past ebook in learning areas at which the perform of technological know-how fails to reply to social wishes.
He considers numerous examples of urgent drawback, starting from weather swap to religiously encouraged constraints on biomedical study to the overlook of ailments that kill thousands of kids each year, interpreting the resources of hassle. He exhibits the fallacies of pondering that democracy continuously calls for public debate of matters most folks can't understand, and argues that accurately constituted services is key to real democracy.
No prior publication has handled where of technology in democratic society so comprehensively and systematically, with consciousness to varied points of technological know-how and to urgent difficulties of our occasions.
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Additional resources for Science in a Democratic Society
Sample text
Ideals of Freedom 11. Equality in Freedom 12. A Picture of Democracy Chapter 4. The Evolution of Public Knowledge 13. Origins 14. The Public Depository 15. Later Variants 16. From Private to Public Chapter 5. Well-Ordered Science 17. Scientific Significance 18. Well-Ordered Science: Explanation 19. Well-Ordered Science: Defense 20. Merely an Ideal? 21. Constraints on Pursuit Chapter 6. Public Reason 22. Problems of Certification? 23. Fraud and Misrepresentation in Scientific Research 24. Well-Ordered Certification and Ideal Transparency 25.
Suggestions for Improvement Chapter 7. Applications and Access 28. Using Public Knowledge 29. The Need for Improved Access 30. Science in Public Debate 31. The Shibboleth of “Free Discussion” 32. Educating Citizens Chapter 8. Diversity and Dissent 33. Diversity within Scientific Fields 34. Varieties of Diversity 35. Markets, Norms, and Team Players 36. Dissent 37. Political Entanglements? Chapter 9. Actual Choices 38. The History of Life 39. Biomedical Technology 40. Genetically Modified Organisms 41.
Since the 1970s, distinguished evolutionary theorists have argued that many topics traditionally investigated by the humanities and the social sciences can, and should, be tackled by deploying neo-Darwinian tools. Sociobiology ambitiously promised to sweep away the mushy and tentative efforts of psychologists and sociologists in favor of biological rigor. Contemporary evolutionary psychology has slightly tempered the original ambitions, but it remains reasonable to believe that the questions it sets for itself, if taken with the seriousness that pervades the most well-grounded evolutionary studies, are far beyond its resources.