What is hidden in the black box: “Disenchantment” of science and the aftermath

Artem M. Feigel­man
Nation­al Research Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty of Nizh­ni Nov­gorod

What is hid­den in the black box: “Dis­en­chant­ment” of sci­ence and the after­math

Abstract. The paper is a reply to E.V. Maslanov’s arti­cle that focus­es on today’s fea­tures of com­mu­ni­ca­tion between sci­en­tif­ic and non-sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ties. The author argues that the ever-increas­ing trans­paren­cy of the bound­aries between sci­en­tists and non-sci­en­tists, achieved through the evolv­ing mod­ern means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, is fruit­ful for both soci­ety and sci­ence. This com­mu­nica­tive trend is com­pared with Weber’s “dis­en­chant­ment”, whose object is not nature, but sci­ence itself that is thus desacral­ized and deprived of an aura of mys­tery for the unini­ti­at­ed. The illus­tra­tion of the his­to­ry of Ther­a­nos affirms the dan­ger of secret sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge and insti­tu­tions, espe­cial­ly if the lat­ter claim to change the hu-man world and are linked with large finan­cial invest­ments. The paper empha­sizes that the move­ment towards a non-sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ty is not a dan­ger to the auton­o­my of sci­ence, but rather a key to a respon­si­ble and inter­est­ed rela­tion­ship between sci­en­tists and soci­ety. The author ques­tions the dan­ger that, accord­ing to E.V. Maslanov, threat­ens sci­ence because of the sit­u­a­tion in which the recent sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge is get­ting avail­able to a wider pub­lic. Using the exam­ple of E. Strelkov’s art work “The Third Idea,” the author states that even in sci­ence-art projects, which are a trad­ing zone be-tween sci­en­tif­ic and non-sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ties, sci­ence appears as an autonomous field that requires a spe­cial approach and effort to under­stand. He con­cludes about the need for an inter­est­ed and simul­ta­ne­ous­ly crit­i­cal dia­logue between sci­en­tists and non-sci­en­tists. Such a dia­logue appears the basis for main­tain­ing the auton­o­my of the sci­en­tif­ic community’s life world from pow­er claims com­ing from the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the “sys­tem” includ­ing busi­ness, gov­ern­ment, and church orga­ni­za­tions.

Key­words: sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tion, trad­ing zone, infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nol­o­gy, dis­en­chant­ment, sci­ence art, Ther­a­nos, Eliz­a­beth Holmes, Evgeniy Strelkov

DOI: 10.5840/dspl2020314

Ref­er­ences:

  1. Dorozhkin, A.M. Prob­le­my postroeni­ia i tipologii zon obme­na [Prob­lems of con­struc­tion and typol­o­gy of zones of exchange], Epis­te­mologiya i filosofiya nau­ki – Epis­te­mol­o­gy and Phi­los­o­phy of Sci­ence, 2017, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 20–29. DOI: 10.5840/eps201754462
  2. Plun­gian, N. Vol­ga bol­na, vyle­chit ee my ne mozhem, no mozhem “proslushat” ee shumy i kri­ki… [The Vol­ga is sick, we can­not cure it, but we can “lis­ten” to its nois­es and screams …], Colta.ru, Feb­ru­ary 14, 2019. Avail­able at: https://www.colta.ru/articles/art/20464-volga-bolna-vylechit-ee-my-ne-mozhem-no-mozhem-proslushat-ee-shumy-i-kriki?part=4 (accessed on Feb­ru­ary 10, 2020)
  3. Skvortsov, V. Pochemu vse pover­ili osno­vatel­nitse Ther­a­nos Eliz­a­bet Kholms: kli­uchevye idei iz kni­gi “Dur­na­ia krov” [Why every­one believed the founder of Ther­a­nos Eliz­a­beth Holmes: Key ideas from the book ‘Evil Blood’], vc.ru. Febr­yary 12, 2018. Avail­able at: https://vc.ru/story/53029-pochemu-vse-poverili-osnovatelnice-theranos-elizabet-holms-klyuchevye-idei-iz-knigi-durnaya-krov (accessed on Feb­ru­ary 10, 2020)

Comments are closed.