略论科学、民主和自由

科学沙文主义与民主和自由的基本原则是不相容的。科学不能凌驾于民主和自由之上。科学家未必是要尽可能地向社会公众提供真理;科学共同体的内部自我纠错机制未必能够确保纠错成功;现代科学耗用大量社会资源的活动,需要对社会公众负责;普通公众的“本土性”知识可以发现和纠正科学共同体的错误。科学作为一种文化传统,应当与人类其他文化传统进行公平、自由竞争,作为一种意识形态,应当与国家权力分离。只有这样,才能保障社会的思想自由,才能保障科学和其他文化传统的健康发展。

An Overview of Science, Democracy and Freedom

By principle,Scientific Chauvinism conflicts with democracy and freedom.Science should not override democracy and freedom.Scientists are not necessarily supposed to make available to the public truth as much as possible.In the scientific community,error correction mechanism is not necessarily able to correct every error.Modern science ought to answer for the substantial consumption of public resources.Average citizens' "localized" knowledge can perceive and correct errors in the scientific community.Science,as a cultural legacy,ought to play fair game and open game with other cultural traditions.Science,as an ideology,ought to part company with governmental authority.Only by this means can free thinking be liberated,healthy development of both science and other cultural legacies be guaranteed.