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Science & Politics. Science & Politics. a centrally important topic a large and manifold topic many meanings: science policy academic politics micropolitics of gender etc. political implications of science here: “scientific politics”. Science & Politics. this lecture:
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Science & Politics • a centrally important topic • a large and manifold topic many meanings: • science policy • academic politics • micropolitics of gender etc. • political implications of science • here: “scientific politics”
Science & Politics this lecture: • history of scientific politics • protests against scientific politics • critique & alternative view
1. scientific politics • roots in Enlightenment • the project of Enlightenment • science and social progress • reason in public affairs
1. scientific politics Montesquieu (1689-1755): • l’Esprit des Lois (1748) • climate & polity • scientific basis: • Boerhaave’s physiology • his own experiments
1. scientific politics Turgot (1727-1781): • physiocrat • vs. tradition&privilege • for economic reforms, rational government • based on a science of man and of society • minister to Louis XVI
1. scientific politics Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832): • utilitarianism • the greatest happiness for the greatest number
1. scientific politics • later 19th and 20th century incarnations: • Marxism • positivism • Technocracy movement (Thorstein Veblen) • Scientific Management (Taylorism) • 2 less known examples
1. scientific politics Pieter Eijkman (1862-1914) • physician • World Capital near The Hague • Peace Palace • scientific academies & research institutes • like social medicine
1. scientific politics Pieter Eijkman (1862-1914) • physician • World Capital near The Hague • Peace Palace • scientific academies & research institutes • like social medicine
1. scientific politics Pieter Eijkman (1862-1914) • physician • World Capital near The Hague • Peace Palace • scientific academies & research institutes • like social medicine
1. scientific politics • Jan Burgers: • background as communist • cultural pessimism • science and values • Study Center for Social Issues (1946) • influence postwar government • Central Planning Bureau
1. scientific politics • H.G. Wells: • SF author • influence • World State • science/ scientists experts
2. protests • Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1817) • background • story • Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
2. protests • Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932) • background • story (incubators, classes, soma, stability, happiness, science) • ambiguity? • anti-Wells
2. protests • Jurgen Habermas: • decisionistic society • experts no longer ‘on tap’ but ‘on top’ • depolitization • technocracy
3. critique • common elements advocates and critics: • science as one best way • presumed one way traffic: science politics • objections: • history scientisms: various political orientations • as much politics inside as outside science • two historical examples
3. critique Example 1: • Royal Society program of experimental science around 1650 vs • Thomas Hobbes
3. critique • competing understandings of natural philosophy (aim, place of experiment, certainty, publicness) • opinion/fact • context of Restoration England
3. critique • competing understandings of natural philosophy (aim, place of experiment, certainty, publicness) • opinion/fact • context of Restoration England
3. critique Example 2: • Lavoisier’s ‘new’ chemistry around 1780 vs • Phlogiston chemistry
1. critique • new table of elements • new nomenclature: e.g. “oxygène de fer” • theory • single experiments • quantification
3. critique • context of physiocracy & state policies • FR and Napoleon
3. critique Conclusion: • expert diversity • Politics in science/science in politics • impossibility of technocracy