HT to Climate Audit for the editorial by philosopher David S. Oderberg. If money corrupts, then is it unreasonable to suspect there may be corruption in science? When science is pursued for the paycheck, what deference is due the paymaster?
The Unholy Lust of Scientists: Some scientists fudge data; others omit inconvenient evidence; yet others misrepresent the evidence they do have, obtaining levels of precision discordant with what may reasonably be expected from frequently messy experimentation with its many variables. Some scientists do all of this and more.Politicians of every persuasion are seeking justification for public policy in science, and the pressure is on grant recipients to provide conclusions, rather than dependable, replicable and accurate results. For true believers in limited government, the separation of science and state is a legitimate starting point.
It may be inviting poison e-mails to say it, but I venture to suggest that contemporary science is now so corrupted by the lust for loot and glory that nothing less than root-and-branch reform can save it. For a start, although I distance myself wholly from his anti-rationalism and methodological anarchy, I share the late philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend's demand for a separation of science and state, or at the very least a radical curtailment of public financial sponsorship of scientific research. How could the millions thrown at scientists be anything other than a veritable inducement to misconduct?
