Frontiers Of Illusion

Science, Technology, and the Politics of Progress

Daniel Sarewitz

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781566394161, 9781566394154
• eBook ISBN: 9781439903728
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Biological Sciences

For the past fifty years, science and technology—supported with billions of dollars from the U.S. government—have advanced at a rate that would once have seemed miraculous, while society's problems have grown more intractable, complex, and diverse. Yet scientists and politicians alike continue to prescribe more science and more technology to cure such afflictions as global climate change, natural resource depletion, overpopulation, inadequate health care, weapons proliferation, and economic inequality.

Daniel Sarewitz scrutinizes the fundamental myths that have guided the formulation of science policy for half a century—myths that serve the professional and political interests of the scientific community, but often fail to advance the interests of society as a whole. His analysis ultimately demonstrates that stronger linkages between progress in science and progress in society will require research agendas that emerge not from the intellectual momentum of science, but from the needs and goals of society.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1: The End of the Age of Physics
• Chapter 2: The Myth of Infinite Benefit
• Chapter 3: The Myth of Unfettered Research
• Chapter 4: The Myth of Accountability
• Chapter 5: The Myth of Authoritativeness
• Chapter 6: The Myth of the Endless Frontier
• Chapter 7: Pas de Trois: Science, Technology, and the Marketplace
• Chapter 8: Science as a Surrogate for Social Action
• Chapter 9: Toward a New Mythology
• Notes
• Index