Compromising the Ideals of Science PDF
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Compromising the Ideals of Science DOI: 10.1057/9781137519429.0001 Other Palgrave Pivot titles by Raphael Sassower DIGITAL EXPOSURE Postmodern Postcapitalism THE PRICE OF PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS DOI: 10.1057/9781137519429.0001 Compromising the Ideals of Science Raphael Sassower University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA DOI: 10.1057/9781137519429.0001 © Raphael Sassower 2015 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-51941-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978-1-137-51942-9 PDF ISBN: 978-1-349-50654-5 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. www.palgrave.com/pivot doi: 10.1057/9781137519429 Dedicated to the memory of Gary Orgel DOI: 10.1057/9781137519429.0001 Contents Preface viii Acknowledgments xiv 1 Fallen Angels: On the Compromises of Scientists 1 The gentlemen of science 3 20th-century ideals of science: from Weber to Merton 6 Contemporary views of the ideals of science: from Kuhn to Ziman 12 Babbage’s lament and warning 18 2 Big Science: Government Control of Science 22 Big Science in the service of the state 24 The effects of market capitalism 33 National guidelines for scientific integrity 40 3 Big Money: Setting Research Agendas 46 The political economy of science 47 Science at the university 50 Case studies of industrial–scientific corruption 57 4 Big Pharma: Pharmaceutical Dominance of Science 69 Routine scandals 70 Pernicious tampering with nature 74 Technoscience revisited 82 vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137519429.0001 Contents vii 5 Situating Technoscience 86 Democratizing technoscience 88 Postmodern inspiration 94 References 99 Index 106 DOI: 10.1057/9781137519429.0001 Preface Scientists used to be considered angelic by the public at least to the extent that they undertook their research for the love of God and human knowledge, rather than for any personal gain that may come about from the fruits of their inquiries. The acquisition of divine knowledge has been sanctified by a public that still worships the genius of scientists and the success of their endeavors over the past few centuries. Under ideal conditions of abundance (the fact that the 17th century Gentlemen of Science were inde- pendently wealthy) akin to the conditions of the Garden of Eden, we’d expect scientists to behave well and do only good. What happened to them along the way? Have they eaten from the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and sinned in some biblical sense? Or was it the forbidden fruit of the trees of greed and fame that led them astray? Has their rank expanded too much to include some unsa- vory members, or have social demands on them become too onerous? Perhaps their aloof distance from the affairs of the state and their own institutional arrogance hastened their fall from grace, so to speak. There is some good and needed distance from the affairs of the state, as we shall see later, so that objectivity and detachment from political or financial influences is preserved; yet there is some detach- ment that is far too distant from the needs and concerns of one’s fellow citizens. Though different, the two kinds of distance may be confused by both practicing scientists and their audiences. In a 1988 PBS program titled “Do Scientists Cheat?” scientist Rustum Roy testified how he had to submit almost viii DOI: 10.1057/9781137519429.0002 Preface ix two proposals a week in order to support his laboratory. He also admitted that scientists regularly hype the promise of their research in order to get funded. A few years later, he was quoted in Newsweek describing scien- tists as having become “welfare queens in white coats.” Roy clearly felt that many scientists were compromising the integrity of their research by placing it in the service of manna from heaven, or more realistically, federal or private funding. This book attempts in part to discern whether or not this admission reflects individual or institutional weakness. In May 2013, John MacDougal, the President of the National Research Council of Canada, proclaimed publicly that “scientific discovery is not valuable unless it has commercial value.” This is quite a far cry from the expectation of science as the venue through which we search nature’s mysteries and the fundamental principles that govern it: we strive to conceptually understand an ordered universe and thereby predict its evolution. Is MacDougal’s assessment a lamentation? Does the public indeed expect that much of scientists? Of course, the expectation of science to be perfect in some sense differs from the expectation that all scientists must likewise be perfect; some error and failure is expected of scientists, but on the whole, the expectation of science as a general practice and a calling remains at a much higher level. The fall of scientists from grace differs from the biblical one, but, as I hope to illustrate here, it’s a similar tale of woes. First, an (exaggerated) ideal view of the conditions of scientific research remains the backdrop against which scientists are judged today (Chapter 1). This view might be mistaken and overblown, but it anchors public perception and the deci- sions the state makes in light of it. Second, the socioeconomic conditions of scientific work have radically changed over the last three centuries, which warrants a reconsideration of public expectations of scientific research (Chapters 2–4). No longer are we funding research for the love of knowledge and to satiate human curiosity, but instead we have become beholden to national security concerns and the profitability of corporate interests. And finally, despite changing expectations, there is some hope for a renewed integrity of scientific work in the 21st century (Chapter 5), perhaps because of the realization that the expectations of scientists were too high to begin with, and that some of their compromises were and are still avoidable given the context of their practice. I’m less concerned with the particular cases of fraud that periodically hit media outlets (even though some will be cited here as symptomatic of the community of scientists), and much more with the structural and DOI: 10.1057/9781137519429.0002
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