2 - Does Science Undermine our Values?

Summary

Is science compatible with our values, or is it opposed to them? Does science have a value system of its own, or is it value neutral? Why is the image of science as creator of Frankenstein monsters so persistent despite the many material benefits science has bestowed upon us?

This essay is based on a talk given in 1977 at Brown University that focused on the role of values in liberal education and was later published in the Brown Alumni Magazine.

1

In a world full of noise about the evils of science and technology, a world overflowing with PCBs, nuclear wastes, carcinogenic agents of every description, a world threatened with ozone depletion, recombinant DNA, to mention a few, I am asked to write on the role of values in what Theodore Roszak, a not too friendly critic, labeled “this strange intellectual passion we call science.” Presumably what is expected is something in the vein of the 1808 Elements of Natural Philosophy, where we are informed that: “The great object of science is to ameliorate the condition of man, by adding to the advantages which he naturally possesses.”

Call it wide-eyed innocence, but I believe most people are not taken in by much of the nonsense they are subjected to and, though confused and troubled, are too sensible to be swept along with seasonal intellectual fashion.