Lynda Walsh
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199857098
- eISBN:
- 9780199345410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199857098.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
This chapter reviews the major factors influencing the construction of late-modern scientific ethos in light of the findings on the persistent meme of prophetic ethos. It examines the rhetorical ...
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This chapter reviews the major factors influencing the construction of late-modern scientific ethos in light of the findings on the persistent meme of prophetic ethos. It examines the rhetorical tension that developed between the progressive model of scientific ethos as practiced by the early Royal Society and a philosophical model of scientific ethos (is/ought model) derived from Hume's Guillotine. The progressive model posited that since scientists best understood the world, they were best positioned to set policy. The is/ought model tends to be activated either by conservative administrations suspicious of centralized regulation or in response to perceived abuses of power by scientists. But neither model ever goes away entirely, and the latent competition between them creates an ethical catch-22 for science advisers in the following way: in policy crises, the old progressive model triggers calls to scientists for advice.Less
This chapter reviews the major factors influencing the construction of late-modern scientific ethos in light of the findings on the persistent meme of prophetic ethos. It examines the rhetorical tension that developed between the progressive model of scientific ethos as practiced by the early Royal Society and a philosophical model of scientific ethos (is/ought model) derived from Hume's Guillotine. The progressive model posited that since scientists best understood the world, they were best positioned to set policy. The is/ought model tends to be activated either by conservative administrations suspicious of centralized regulation or in response to perceived abuses of power by scientists. But neither model ever goes away entirely, and the latent competition between them creates an ethical catch-22 for science advisers in the following way: in policy crises, the old progressive model triggers calls to scientists for advice.
