Jim asked about the trade-off between science and social responsibility. The two should march hand in hand, but the question is are there forces separating both of them.
1. I knew more about economic education than scientific training. We have some excellent scientific people here who can correct me. In the case of young students of economics -- who are trained to think of themselves as scientific -- the technical demands are so extreme that training in the more humanistic parts of economics, such as economic history and even more so the history of economic thought, are falling by the wayside. 2. As universities become more dependent on corporate funding, students have less opportunity to question corporate interests. Think of the recent case in which a graduate student in Oregon got hammered for questioning forestry practices. 3. Here is a question: what percentage of scientific people are working directly or indirectly for the military-industrial complex? On Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 10:13:13AM -0700, Jim Devine wrote: > > "strik[ing] balance between science and social responsibility" sounds > like they're in conflict or there's a trade-off. Shouldn't they be > complementary? > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
