The Right to Science

The Right to Science
Author: Helle Porsdam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2021-12-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108478255

The first serious, extended effort to use a human rights-based approach to address the scientific issues affecting society and the often-neglected human right to science.

The Right to Science

The Right to Science
Author: Helle Porsdam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2021-12-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108801935

That everyone has a human right to enjoy the benefits of the progress of science and its applications comes as a surprise to many. Nevertheless, this right is pertinent to numerous issues at the intersection of science and society: open access; 'dual use' science; access to ownership and dissemination of data, knowledge, methods and the affordances and applications thereof; as well as the role of international co-operation, human dignity and other human rights in relation to science and its products. As we advance towards superintelligence, quantum computing, drone swarms, and life-extension technology, serious policy decisions will be made at the national and international levels. The human right to science provides an ideal tool to do so, backed up as it is by international law, political heft, and normative weight. This book is the first sustained attempt at turning this wonder of foresight into an actionable and justiciable right. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal

Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal
Author: Heather E. Douglas
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2009-07-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 082297357X

The role of science in policymaking has gained unprecedented stature in the United States, raising questions about the place of science and scientific expertise in the democratic process. Some scientists have been given considerable epistemic authority in shaping policy on issues of great moral and cultural significance, and the politicizing of these issues has become highly contentious. Since World War II, most philosophers of science have purported the concept that science should be "value-free." In Science, Policy and the Value-Free Ideal, Heather E. Douglas argues that such an ideal is neither adequate nor desirable for science. She contends that the moral responsibilities of scientists require the consideration of values even at the heart of science. She lobbies for a new ideal in which values serve an essential function throughout scientific inquiry, but where the role values play is constrained at key points, thus protecting the integrity and objectivity of science. In this vein, Douglas outlines a system for the application of values to guide scientists through points of uncertainty fraught with moral valence.Following a philosophical analysis of the historical background of science advising and the value-free ideal, Douglas defines how values should-and should not-function in science. She discusses the distinctive direct and indirect roles for values in reasoning, and outlines seven senses of objectivity, showing how each can be employed to determine the reliability of scientific claims. Douglas then uses these philosophical insights to clarify the distinction between junk science and sound science to be used in policymaking. In conclusion, she calls for greater openness on the values utilized in policymaking, and more public participation in the policymaking process, by suggesting various models for effective use of both the public and experts in key risk assessments.

Ethics and Social Responsibility in Science Education

Ethics and Social Responsibility in Science Education
Author: M. J. Frazer
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2014-05-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1483160572

Ethics and Social Responsibility in Science Education discusses the principles and approaches to the problems of ethics and social responsibility in science education. The book is divided into three parts. The first part, Principles and Approach, explores the nature of moral education and the ethics; social responsibility of science; and the roles of scientists and engineers in societal issues. The second part, Problems and Prospects, covers different social and cultural issues in relation to ethics in science such as international stability; food production; human experimentation; medical ethics; chemical pollution; and energy production. The third part, Teaching Methodology, talks about the importance and styles of teaching ethics and social responsibility in science education. The text is recommended for practitioners, researchers, and educators in the different fields of science. Those who wish to know the importance of ethics in the socio-cultural aspect of sciences will also find this book helpful.

Unsettling Responsibility in Science Education

Unsettling Responsibility in Science Education
Author: Marc Higgins
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2020-11-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9783030612986

This open access book engages with the response-ability of science education to Indigenous ways-of-living-with-Nature. Higgins deconstructs the ways in which the structures of science education—its concepts, categories, policies, and practices—contribute to the exclusion (or problematic inclusion) of Indigenous science while also shaping its ability respond. Herein, he undertakes an unsettling homework to address the ways in which settler colonial logics linger and lurk within sedimented and stratified knowledge-practices, turning the gaze back onto science education. This homework critically inhabits culture, theory, ontology, and history as they relate to the multicultural science education debate, a central curricular location that acts as both a potential entry point and problematic gatekeeping device, in order to (re)open the space of responsiveness towards Indigenous ways-of-knowing-in-being.