Ideology and Science

Abstract

In every culture men and women are inspired or oppressed by some ideology or other, be it total, religious, or sociopolitical. On the other hand only a few cultures have created science. Even very advanced civilizations, such as the ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese ones, were without science as we know it, i.e., as a self-correcting and self-sustaining cognitive enterprise. Moreover some societies have deliberately destroyed the little science they had inherited. Others have refused to adopt the science created elsewhere. Such hatred or fear of science has always been justified in the name of some ideology or other. For example, the religious fundamentalists — be they Christian or Moslem, Hindus, or Buddhists — have rejected modern science as a whole; and the totalitarian, when in power, have banned entire scientific theories for being incompatible with their own dogmas.