Qual o valor da ciência? Metafísica e axiologia na era da Big Science e da tecnociência

Abstract

In this work we assume that the sciences of nature have metaphysical presuppositions and axiological principles that relate and mutually adhere to each other. We start from the hypothesis that the utilitarian metaphysics of scientific research in the era of Big Science and technoscience impoverishes the cultural and epistemic value of science, contributing to the commoditization of science and life. In the first chapter we look at how philosopher scientists such as Poincaré, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and others thought the relationship between metaphysics and science, offering an answer to the important question "What is the value of science?" In the second chapter we discuss the relations between truth and utility and point out the tension between a conception of science centered on the idea of its epistemic and cultural value and another, called utilitarianism, according to which the value of science lies in the production of practical utilities. We also point out how utilitarianism was understood by many scientists and philosophers as a force of impoverishment and degradation of the traditional values of scientific research. We turn to three case studies in subsequent chapters. The first analyzes how metaphysical assumptions and axiological principles may have been decisive in rejecting Ida Noddack's theory of nuclear fission by Enrico Fermi's group, who proposed the existence of transuranics. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the imbrication between physics, metaphysics, and axiology in the early days of Big Science over a decade when utilitarianism began to become dominant. In the fourth chapter we investigated the first ten years of Physics Today, considered by the American Institute of Physics as the most important physics journal in the world. Our intention is to verify how the tension between the two conceptions of science addressed in the second chapter is expressed in the publications of the first decade of the journal. In the fifth chapter, we present José Leite Lopes' conception of science, which transcends the dichotomy between truth and usefulness by arguing that science must seek truth, strive for good, and approach beauty. In the end we reinforce an epistemically centered and socially robust science image.