Ideas on the Nature of Science
By: David Cayley (Editor)
Publishing Date: October 9, 2009
Format: Paperback, 380 pages
ISBN-13: 9780864925442
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
"Science has long been taken as the very definition of modernity", writes acclaimed broadcaster David Cayley in the introduction to this collection of his landmark interview series on the nature of science for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio program Ideas. The resulting interview transcripts were turned into the thought provoking and insightful book Ideas on the Nature of Science. In this essential discussion book are the ideas of many of the leading thinkers on the history, philosophy, and role of science in the modern world.
David Cayley is a brilliant interviewer who, through his incisive questions, draws out the most important and often controversial viewpoints from his guests. The thinkers in the interview series share their insights into how the very nature of science, and of scientific knowledge are not absolute. Instead, scientific ideas are as much products of society and politics as they are of the scientific method. While the concept that scientific facts and reason are almost fully integrated into the modern mind and contemporary society, this idea that science represents absolute truth is being called into question. Many of the interviews in the book consider the very objectivity of scientific facts, and place scientific findings squarely within the context of society itself.
David Cayley (photo left) understands that science cannot be removed from society and even from politics. He questions his guests deeply into this two edged sword, where on the one hand science may be capable of powerful results, but are those events dangerous to society as a whole. In the discussions, the idea emerges that much of what is supposed to be the scientific method has not been subjected to experimentation at all. Indeed, all of modern society forms the laboratory where those experiments are being conducted, often with little or no political or legal oversight. At the same time, science can be trumped by politics where the power of science is used as a political tool and results are employed as an appeal to authority.
For me, the power of the book is how editor David Cayley probes his guests, through his powerful questioning, to examine the fundamental nature of science and its role in history and modern society. Because the scientific community is becoming more disjointed, and less unified around what was thought to be a determined universal truth, these interviews are even more critical to society. No longer can any scientist claim the last word, but at the same time, that insight opens up scientific research to more discoveries. Since society as a whole recognizes science as one critical element of modern life, the opportunity for closer scrutiny is possible. The idea that science was separate from society, not part of the political process, no longer holds true. Because science is recognized as part of culture itself, misuse of science for dangerous ends can be prevented through public action.
I highly recommend this must read anthology of the world's leading thinkers on science Ideas on the Nature of Science edited by David Cayley. The ideas presented by the philosophers, historians, and practitioners of science will have a profound effect on how the reader views the role and nature of science in society. Indeed, the very myth of modernity, and of science as part of that concept, is called into serious question in several interviews.
Read the important and eye opening book Ideas on the Nature of Science edited by David Cayley, and you will reexamine your entire worldview on the role of science in society, and on the very nature and mythos of modernity itself. The book is a treasure trove of ideas and philosophy that will keep the reader thinking and researching the topics discussed, long after the book is read, and then reread several times.
