Prometheus bedeviled
Subtitle: science and the contradictions of contemporary culture
By: Norman Levitt.
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New Brunswick, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 416
Subjects: Science -- Social aspects.; Science -- Political aspects.; Science -- Philosophy.
Description: Norman Levitt examines the strained relations between science and contemporary society. For the most part, Levitt states, we idolize musicians and cheer on athletes, yet we view scientists with a mixture of awe and unease.

One result of this uncertainty about scientific work is an ill-informed crusade to "democratize" science. It has become fashionable lately, Levitt states, for non-scientists to attempt to intervene in science policy, which often results in methodologically unsound decisions. The embrace of "alternative medicine" is a particularly ominous example.

Levitt suggests that science, by virtue of its accuracy and reliability, deserves to be at the top of the hierarchy of knowledge, and that our social institutions ought to take this fact strongly into account.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [375]-400) and index.