Below, Dalton Conley responds to the question:
The boundaries of science are continually expanding as scientists become increasingly integral to finding solutions for larger social issues, such as poverty, conflict, financial crises, etc. On what specific issue/problem do you feel we need to bring the scientific lens to bear?
The Enlightenment Project--so to speak--tells us that all of human life can be better comprehended (and thus improved) by careful, scientific reasoning. I am not sure I believe that, but certainly, once a problem has been articulated, it can be addressed through a scientific lens. But this is an amalgam of science and engineering (i.e. finding technical solutions to well-defined problems). The issue is articulating the problem. First, scientists don't often enough question the definitions of the problem--what exactly is poverty when we are talking about developed countries? Why are we concerned with over-population? What is a crisis?
Second, but related, is the fact that ultimately the rationality of science cannot define values. That comes from art, poetry, nostalgia, religion, drives, urges, instincts, and so on. The point is that it comes from somewhere else other than from within scientific discourse and reasoning.
But once the goal has been defined, the scientific method is quite effective at engineering or hacking the ideal path toward that goal. Yes, there can be path dependency or sub-optimal equilibria in which any social system--including a scientific field--can get trapped. But for the most part, the real danger is the hubris of forgetting that science cannot define our values; that there are always more questions raised by science than answered (in fact, I would say that the primary task of science is formulating answerable questions); and that there are always unintended consequences (i.e. problems resulting from) of any scientific "solution" since human life is a very complex system that learns from the information generated endogenously within it.
Humanities & Social Science
Comments
Definitional issues make progress so hard to measure. "Solutions" to a "crisis" which we invent, or exacerbate or ignore. How often does exciting discovery lead to some unintended outcome, commercial application (good or bad), or just confusion. Also, it seems like the scientific method is just to slow for our culture or something along those lines.
Posted by: LabGrab | August 18, 2009 5:45 PM