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I found a very interesting article in Le Monde Diplomatique (June 2010). I thought it was interesting to summarise the main points and discuss the topic. I am not German mother tongue, so I preferred to write in English. Feel free to comment also in German.

Original source: Pablo Jensen [1] , « L’histoire des sciences n’est pas un long fleuve tranquille »

THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE IS FAR FROM BEING A QUIET AND LINEAR WATERCOURSE

Science seems to have no sources anymore. Researchers build their own theories on the basis of previous ones. However, the image of a linear flux naturally bringing towards scientific truth is strongly criticised and put into discussion by new social studies on research mechanisms .

Sciences never easily found their place in society. Scientific domains have to coexist with a fundamental contradiction coming from the old ideal that sees “pure science” as isolated from deformations resulting from economic and social contingencies [2] . In the last decades, studies on social history of science, initiated by Alexandre Koyré and Thomas Kuhn [3] , transformed the way in which the place of science in society is conceived.

Far from what traditional history tells us [4] , sciences’ evolution is not the result of a coherent and linear project, but the one of temporal and spiritual global changes. History of sciences is like a watercourse, flowing towards an unknown ocean, facing obstacles, accidents and bends. Sciences do not discover the world , but build new worlds while holding together humans, machines and natural objects.

It is everyday more clear that the great scientific controversies do not end up with confrontations between erudite rationalists and an obscurantist opinion. More realistically, political debates are generated by discussions between different world views’ partisans. It seems clear, by now, that scientific progresses (such as nanotechnologies and GMO) cannot be judged separately from the social system where they were generated [5] .

The great challenge is, then, to find a way to link researchers with a civil society that, on one side, remains submitted and controlled by a multiplicity of influences, but, on the other side, does not accept anymore a passive role.

Let’s discuss about it...

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[1] Researcher at the Centre national de la recherche (CNRS) and At The Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon , author of The essay "Atoms cream in my coffee. Can physics explain everything? ", Seuil, coll. "Points Sciences, Paris, 2004.

[2] Report states general research, www.ladocumentationfran ç aise.fr

[3] See Alexander Koyre the Closed World to the Infinite Universe , Gallimard, Paris, 2005 (1 ed.: PUF, 1962). Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , Flammarion, Paris, 2008 (1 ed.: 1962).

[4] See for example George Bartholomew Science Stories, Elipse, Paris, 2009.

[5] Bonneuil Christophe et coll, autrement "Innover? La recherche face à l'un nouveau régime d'avènement de production et de régulation génétique végétale the savoirs », dans Dossiers de l'environnement de l'INRA , n. 30, Institut national de la recherche agronomique, Paris, 2006 .