Science and ignorance

Michael Grupp

pp. 147-160

in: Helga Nowotny, Hilary Rose (eds), Counter-movements in the sciences, Berlin, Springer, 1979

Abstract

Imagine the funeral of science. The relatives (the scientific community) follow the casket of science, crying over lost funding and unemployment. The undertaker (the Government) wrings his hands in false compassion, while counting the savings that will relieve the hard-pressed budget. The vultures: ever-growing gangs of quacks, thriving on pseudoscientific vocabulary. Finally, the heirs: ideologies of all kinds that fill the immense space left by science in the hearts of men — the need to believe.