Waardevolle wetenschap. Bespiegelingen over natuurwetenschap, moraal en samenleving in de aanloop naar de Doorbraakbeweging

Abstract

Value-laden science. Reflections on science, morality and society at the onset of the Dutch Breakthrough movement At the close of the Second World War, a group of Dutch intellectuals devised a blueprint for a planned society. Although this scheme was highly technocratic, it was more than that in the task which it attributed to scientific experts, for their function was to check not only the efficiency of plans but also their general desirability. In this paper, I show how this peculiar formulation of the expert's role was the result of a series of debates on the (extent of the) moral character of science and its place in society, that had taken place in the Netherlands since the mid-i930s. Starting with a scientists' response to the rise of fascism, these discussions took shape in conjunction with the Breakthrough movement and its anti-positivist desires for engaged knowledge and a synthesis of intellectual and ethical concerns. The physicist J.M. Burgers, who had been involved in many of the debates, finally found a solution for the problems in A.N. Whitehead's philosophy. On the basis of this, he developed a moral epistemology and the plans for a science-led society mentioned above. Although these plans found much support in the post-war Breakthrough government, they were never realized.