Imperfect Oracle: The Epistemic and Moral Authority of Science

8. Science and the Public

The scientiWc discoveries of the past few hundred years have brought with them new, radically di¤erent understandings of both the physical world and our human nature. Galileo added experimental studies of the moon, Jupiter, and comets to Copernicus’s model, and in the process made the new heliocentric universe seem much more vast than the old one. Harvey revealed a beautifully complex system for circulation of the blood, and in doing so gave new impetus to the idea that many mysteries lay hidden from sight within the body. The complex chemical nature of the world came into focus through the work of Antoine Lavoisier, Humphrey Davies, and other chemists. Since those early days, science’s many revelations about the physical world have in one way or another continued to present challenges to traditional ways of thinking. Along with a new sense of the world’s beauty and complexity, science has also made nature seem less predictable, less settled, and at times more intimidating. The growth of science has also had important practical consequences. In the course of the past two centuries people in many parts of the world have been largely freed from many frightening, deadly diseases and recurring epidemics. A host of products that make for a safer and more comfortable life have become available. Much labor has been elevated from a grinding, subsistence level to more eªcient and rewarding work. The world has been remade into a global civilization driven by science and technology, and much good has come of the transformation. At the same time, it is easy to Wnd examples in which the changes wrought have had undesirable e¤ects. eight sc ience and the public We now live in an increasingly crowded world, in which many resources have become scarcer, and in which adverse environmental consequences of implementing new technologies are visible. Because the distinction between science and technology is lost on most nonscientists, deleterious e¤ects of the applications of scientiWc discovery are associated in the public mind with science. Thus science has, in the course of its evolution in Western society, acquired a public reputation that is a mixture of admiration and respect coupled with a certain amount of fear and mistrust. Most who work within the scientiWc community think of science as a disinterested, rational search for new knowledge subject to skeptical evaluation . This self-image leads rather easily to a certain overweening sense of pride. Many in the science and technology community are sure that scientiWc thinking is superior in important respects to other modes of thought. When certain applications of scientiWc discovery have been criticized , often by those outside science, the challenges have been vigorously opposed, for a variety of reasons. Elof A. Carlson has described some of these instances in his book Times of Triumph, Times of Doubt (2006). One of his examples is the unbridled use of pesticides and herbicides in the decades following World War II. Rachel Carson, in her book Silent Spring (1962), examined the deleterious e¤ects of chemical pesticides such as ddt on plants, animals, and humans. It made people think about the environment in a way that they never had before. Carson, a marine biologist, and already a popular writer on the marine environment, showed that a new technology that seems harmless and beneWcial might have serious long-term e¤ects. The chemical industry that produced pesticides and herbicides , and the agricultural establishment that was heavily invested in their uses, were shocked by the criticism. Carson was viliWed in much of the chemical business community, and portrayed as hysterical and unqualiWed to write on the subject (Lytle 2007; Murphy 2005). Despite the attacks, or perhaps because of them, the book was a runaway best seller. It can fairly be said to have launched the environmental movement, which exhibits an undercurrent of suspicion and distrust both of corporate America and of science that, through its application, opens the door to manifold environmental harms. Science’s position as a source of expert authority, and especially of moral authority, is no sinecure. The public may respect science for the good that has come in its name, but it has also learned that its connections with other societal sectors, such as government and business, can lead to damaging applications of scientiWc discovery. We begin an examination of science and the public 245 the public’s views of science with a brief look at...