Why democracies need science / Harry Collins and Robert Evans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Collins, H. M. (Harry M.), 1943- author.

Evans, Robert, 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy and science.

Science--Political aspects.

Science.

Science and state.

Physical Description:

viii, 194 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA, USA : Polity Press, 2017.

Summary:

We live in times of increasing public distrust of the main institutions of modern society. Experts, including scientists, are suspected of working to hidden agendas or serving vested interests. The solution is usually seen as more public scrutiny and more control by democratic institutions experts must be subservient to social and political life. In this book, Harry Collins and Robert Evans take a radically different view. They argue that, rather than democracies needing to be protected from science, democratic societies need to learn how to value science in this new age of uncertainty. By emphasizing that science is a moral enterprise, guided by values that should matter to all, they show how science can support democracy without destroying it and propose a new institution The Owls that can mediate between science and society and improve technological decision-making for the benefit of all.

Contents:

Part I. Introduction

Science as a moral choice

Part II. Elective modernism

Choosing science

Elective modernism, democracy and science

Part III. Academic context

Elective modernism in context

Institutional innovations

Manifesto

Elective modernism and democracy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-189) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Collins, H.M. (Harry M.), 1943- author. Why democracies need science.

ISBN:

9781509509607

1509509607

9781509509614

1509509615

OCLC:

956395600

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description