Scientific Practice and Scientific Politics

9321305奈伊科学家是任何社会中受教育程度最高的公民之一，他们经常看到，他们肩负着解决周围世界问题的特殊责任。AAAS和APS等专业协会向那些对人类做出重大贡献的科学家颁发特别奖项。奈教授正在研究我们对科学家社会责任的看法是如何在当代英美世界中发展起来的。在1930年代，S期间，英国科学家和知识分子对经济、社会、政治和哲学问题进行了前所未有的辩论，无论是在他们之间，还是在公众面前。由于他们的科学工作被视为理性、客观性和进步的例证，许多英国科学家想知道，他们是否负有特殊的责任，将自己的才华直接用于他们那个时代的麻烦困境。他们辩论的基本问题集中在所谓的“科学的社会责任”上，包括对科学的社会决心、科学方法的性质、科学理论对社会问题的适用性、科学的组织和控制以及科学家在政治权力走廊中的作用等问题的关注。可以肯定地说，这些问题仍然是有争议的。与历史上的过去一样，个别的男性和女性继续以冷漠的、有时同样令人信服的方式回答这些问题。奈伊博士通过对两位科学家的详细研究，重新审视和分析了这些关于科学实践和科学责任的问题。这两位科学家以截然不同的方式回答了社会问题，他们的回答在英国的科学界、哲学界和政界具有相当大的影响力。物理学家P.M.S.布莱克特和物理化学家迈克尔·波兰尼作为亲密的私人朋友、1937年至1933年的教职同事和科学实验室的主任，在1930年的S到1950年的S的几十年里领导着英国的科学研究。仔细研究他们的科学工作、他们的社会和哲学认识论以及他们的政治生活，是更好地理解科学实践、对自然世界的认识和人类状况改善之间的复杂关系的手段。***

9321305 Nye Scientists, among the most highly educated citizens in any society, have often seen that they carry a special responsibility to address the problems of the world around them. Professional societies such as the AAAS and APS give special awards to those scientists who make significant contributions to humanity. Professor Nye is examining how our views of the social responsibility of scientists have developed in the contemporary Anglo-American world. During the 1930's British scientists and intellectuals debated economic, social, political, and philosophical issues, as never before, among themselves and before the public. Because their scientific work was taken to exemplify reason, objectivity and progress, many British scientists wondered whether they had a special responsibility to turn their talents directly to the troublesome dilemmas of their time. The essential questions which they debated focused on what came to be called the "social responsibility of science" and included concerns about the social determination of science, the nature of scientific method, the applicability of scientific theories to social problems, the organization and control of science, and the role of scientists in political corridors of power. It may safely be said that these questions remains controversial ones. As in the historical past, individual men and women continue to respond to these questions indifferent, and sometimes equally convincing, ways. Dr. Nye is reexamining and reanalyzing these questions about scientific practice and scientific responsibility through a detailed study of two scientists who answered social questions in radically different ways whose responses carried considerable weight among scientific, philosophical and political circles in England. As close personal friends, faculty colleagues during 1937-53, and directors of scientific laboratories, the physicist P.M.S. Blackett and the physical chemist Michael Polanyi were leading scienti sts in Great Britain in the decades from the 1930's to the 1950's. A close study of their scientific work, their social and philosophical epistemologies, and their political lives is a means to better understanding the complicated relationships among scientific practice, knowledge of the natural world, and improvement of the human condition. ***