Daniel Sarewitz - The End of the Cartesian Dream?

Talk by Daniel Sarewitz [School Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State Univ., USA] at the Joint Research Centre as part of the STS “Contro Corrente” series of seminars.
25 June 2015

The science enterprise in the U.S.A., and other industrialized nations as well, is experiencing a period of profound and comprehensive stress that is beyond its capacity to comprehend, and thus to address. The main symptoms of this stress are 1) unsustainable growth of the enterprise; 2) poor research quality across broad swaths of science; 3) lack of progress on major priorities despite huge investments; and 4) increasing politicization of science. These problems are typically viewed as separate; I argue that they are causally connected. At their root is confusion about the role of science in human problem-solving, in particular a cultural proclivity to overvalue the importance of physics-like fundamental and general knowledge, and to attribute to such science capacities that are in fact located in technology, in institutional arrangements, and in political processes. This confusion has led to significant misdirection of scientific effort, even as researchers continue to churn out millions of articles (of often dubious quality) each year. The very integrity and legitimacy of science is potentially at stake. Some institutional experiments that can point the way toward a more scientifically and socially effective enterprise are now under way; many more will be needed.

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