Science and company

The scientific results, of share the Technologie S which they make it possible to conceive, took a great importance in the developed industrial society. They are also important in many choices Politique S.

It is the role of the scientific Médiation which to make available of the public the nature and the direction of these results.

Because of their implication in the company, sciences are the object of various criticisms related to their applications, in particular those which are related to an aspect of the particularly target company of political criticisms (economic relations, military activities).

The autonomy of science

See also: Autonomy of science

The autonomy of science is an important condition with its good social acceptance.

The modes of Financement of research can however involve failures with the Autonomie of science. The tender with the economic interests can thus rise in particular from a financing by private industry, tending to support the directions allowing the creation of technologies for a solvent market.

Associations, like Doctors without borders or ATTAC, and of the intellectuals, as John Le Carré in her book the Constancy of the gardener, show in particular the Drug company:

  • to support research on the diseases concerning the Pays developed S, even if those are relatively benign, while the diseases of the poorest countries are ignored, because the market corresponding is nonsolvent;
  • to support the creation and the use of new molecules, sold at high prices, and the side effects sometimes badly controlled;
  • to impose on the Third World country touched by the AIDS to buy drugs patented with the detriment of the use of less expensive sold generic medicines

In the same way, of associations like Greenpeace, the political parties like the Greens, and more generally a big part of the civil society (see Fight anti-GMO), show the agronomic industries to be unaware of the possible risks of GMO and the socio-economic impact of their diffusion in the countries under-developed, with an aim of increasing their profits.

Let us notice that these criticisms do not carry on science itself, nor on the Scientific research as such, but on its direction and the use of its results by the economic system. However, they are generally accompanied by a critic by the scientific system and scientists:

  • the industrial financing would call into question the objectivity of the scientists: those would be tempted to warp their results in order to support the theses guaranteeing a better financing to them;
  • according to some critical, the scientists should themselves call into question the applications which are made their discoveries, are decided by the economic system and the political power.

The principle of autonomy of research was developed in the modern societies to try to answer these criticisms.

Criticisms morals

Certain religions reject the human pride which pushes it to try to become omnipotent and omniscient. They are the dangers of the Hybris (disproportion), denounced in many fantastic works and science fiction, to start with Frankenstein of Mary Shelley (and in a general way misadventures of the Faust of Goethe).

Heidegger reproach especially the loss of certain values and the fact that progress moves away us from nature, of the unit. It is the boarding of the man by the technique although one can as think as one recognizes oneself in his work and by there that the technique is rather humanizing. Actually, for Heidegger, the boarding is a setting with the order of nature, an abandonment of the human being in his report/ratio with the authentic existence, the profit of a determination of the nature and world which subject them to the unrestrained will domination of the man.

Some claim that the biological and data-processing scientific discoveries threaten the concept of humanity. Can also be attached to this attitude some critical of the genetic engineering and the GMO, which show the scientists to be assumed a right, the right to create new types of living beings, which should not belong to human.

Supposed intellectual elitism

One criticizes sometimes the scientific world for the use of an obscure vocabulary and the incapacity to make the contents scientific accessible. This criticism doubles real charges of low quality of the concepts and results, masked by the use of a complex vocabulary. For the Scientific community, these criticisms can sometimes concern the Obscurantisme.

In 1996, an article was published in the review Social Text whose title was: To transgress the borders: towards transformative hermeneutics of the quantum gravitation . Its author, Alan Sokal, revealed thereafter, that it was about a parody and that he wanted to attack the inopportune use of scientific terminology and abusive extrapolations of the exact sciences to the social sciences. Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, in their book intellectual Impostures , draws up a list of authors whom they accuse of the use of voluntarily alambiquées expressions and of a scientific vocabulary in order to muddle the reader and to mask a meaningless text. However, Sokal and Bricmont are not any competent recognized in the fields about which they speak abundantly. The reproach that they make in Lacan, to be based on mathematical concepts, is unfounded because Lacan, psychoanalyst, are interested only in the language (see Jacques Lacan), including with the mathematical language, but absolutely not with the mathematical contents: it uses the mathematical language only as metaphors and the small mathematical models that as structures.

Charges of conservatism

According to professor Giovanni Busino: the world of research is a whole of experts and theorists is unfavorable to the innovation and with the change, it officializes the roles and relative waitings .

One shows sometimes the scientific community of a certain conservatism: according to these criticisms, the scientific community (thus, leading committees of reviews, etc) would accept only the results not contradicting its principal dogmas. This criticism often takes the form of a criticism of a “official science” which would choke the nonorthodoxe initiatives. One finds it in particular among partisans of alternative medicines.

See also: Sociology of sciences, Amorce=Pour a widening of this subject, to also see

Military applications of science

The average modern soldiers often rest on state-of-the-art technologies, sometimes resulting from recent scientific developments. A famous example of scientific, technological development and military compound is the Projet Manhattan, by which the the United States developed the Nuclear weapon during the Second world war.

The integration of science, technology, indutrial resource and the military users was sometimes called besides complex militaro-industrialist (according to the expression of the US president Dwight Eisenhower).

One criticizes the participation of science in military industry on several points:

  • Any scientific discovery can, potentially, lead to a military application.
  • By the financings which it gets, the industry of the armament influences the direction of undertaken research, can give concerned their objectivity, and diverts them more productive activities.
  • For some, the excitation of discovered and competition between researchers lead the scientists to concentrate on the tasks which they have to achieve and to be unaware of the long-term prospects. Thus certain scientists of the Manhattan Project expressed regrets afterwards.

Contributions of the Science for the modern world

what science enabled us to obtain on the technical plan, social…
what it remains to do -->

Generally, the scientific research makes it possible to make technological advance and to increase knowledge. One of the principal goals of the scientific research is the improvement of the living conditions, in particular the increase in the Life expectancy.

Knowledge resulting from science has many effects on the human society. On the one hand, the scientific discoveries are used to try to answer the great philosophical questions concerning the Sens of the life. In addition, while bringing a model of the world, science helps to fight the generally accepted ideas and handling. In this direction, she is opposed to the Superstition S.

The scientific research is also a paramount instrument of the economic development of a country. Indeed, research is carrying innovation and makes it possible the companies to develop while making evolve/move their products and services. In addition, the researchers within the university always have an activity of formation being to the point of the techniques and of the knowledge, they can train people who will be able to adapt to the technological developments, and which will be themselves carrying innovation within the companies.

Lastly, the researchers constitute a tank of expert, who can take part in the solution to problem specific and react to unexpected situations (participation in the manifestation of the truth in the investigations of police force, installation of measurements to fight the epidemics…).

The scientific research thus brings not only of the technological innovations, therapeutic, economic… but also a service (formation, expertise, standardization).

Food production

The scientific research revolutionized the Agriculture and multiplied by two the worldwide production of Céréale S between 1950 and 1971. This increase results from a combination of Génétique, botany, chemistry and engineering.

Health

In the same way, science enabled us to improve our comprehension of the operation of the Human body and contributed to increase our Life expectancy in the industrialized countries. In 1693, the English astronomer Edmond Halley published a study relating to the life expectancy in the German city of Breslau which shows that on 100 children, half exceeded the 10 years and only 11 reached the 70 years age. Masaccio, Mozart and Schubert died respectively at the 27 years, 35 years and 31 years age although other great men lived longer. Moreover, the Tuberculosis, the Variola, the Poliomyelitis, the Meningitis and the Pneumonie almost disappeared in the industrialized countries (this being also due to a better hygiene and a better standard of living themselves reached thanks to the scientific discoveries).

This progress of course went on the treatments (vaccination, drugs, Chirurgie, and now genic Thérapie) but also on the organization (emergency Médecine, Samu), hygiene and the prevention (education with health, veterinary services for the monitoring of food, water treatment…).

The studies on the behavior (Sociology, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, Psychology) made it possible to better include/understand the mental diseases, the Névrose S and the Psychose S. One passed from a statute of “insane” (locked up in the asylums and subjected to degrading treatments) to that of “patient”.

Energy production

The human force and resistance being limited, the human ones have recourse to tools and machines which make it possible to carry out the tasks more effectively (more quickly, with a greater width, a greater safety…). The passage of the work of animal origin (animals of pack, of feature) and of the mills (with water and wind) to the machine was made possible thanks to the possibility of producing energy.

Both industrial revolutions were allowed by the discovery of modes of production of energy maîtrisée : the steam engine and fossil energies (coal, Oil).

The discovery of the electricity or the hydraulic fluid power or pneumatic made it possible to separate the place of production from energy (central) and the place of its use (residence, factory).

The discovery of the Radioactivité at the beginning of the 20th century provided a new thermal energy source (transformed into electricity), which allowed in particular certain countries, like France, to diversify its suppliers of Raw material and thus exploited a big role the foreign policy (independence with respect to the oil producers), and to reduce the atmospheric Pollution, at the price of an increase in the risks and a problem up to now unsolved of processing waste and unused power stations.

Currently, of many research and experiments are carried out on energies known as “renewable” (wind, solar) in addition to those already controlled (hydraulic stoppings, tidal power plant of Rancid). One also undertakes research on the nuclear Fusion, for example within the framework of the project ITER.

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