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What is the purpose of science?

The failure of modern science to solve all major problems

We can observe that the arrival of modern science, and the technological explosion that followed, have not delivered solutions up to the level of expectations regarding major individual and collective problems. Science mostly deals with extremely specialized questions, whose implications in our lives are very limited, and it seems to produce almost as many catastrophes (ecology, weapons of mass destruction) as solutions.

Cause of the failure

The sentence from Rabelais 'Science without conscience is only ruin of the soul,' in his Pantagruel, illustrates the issue: what is envisioned is an individual framing (personal conscience) of science, rather than a collective framing (social organization).What is really missing is an effective social organization, such as the one described in the book From Capital to Reason. Neither liberal democracy, nor communism, nor autocracy, are social organizations sufficiently effective to channel the powerful tool that is science.A more helpful metaphor would therefore be to present science as an engine, and social organization as the steering wheel.

Usefulness of modern science in solving problems

Solving a problem implies carrying out the following process:1. Identify the problem.2. Conduct a thorough analysis.3. Develop a solution, often partial.4. Implement it.Even without mentioning its great usefulness at the analysis stage, science is of major importance in developing a solution. This is so true that as soon as one regularly practices the serious method of problem-solving, one notices that what is possible in terms of a solution is often largely determined by the available technologies, which leads to an interest in science.

Deepen the discussion

Regarding the mismatch between scientific subjects and our fundamental problems:The conference Will we continue scientific research? by Alexandre Grothendieck at CERN in 1972The statements of Matthieu Ricard in the first chapter (From scientific research to spiritual quest) of the book The Monk and the Philosopher.

Regarding the social regulation of science and technology, see the Amish approach, which consists of adopting only a subset of technological inventions. In comparison to the Amish approach, we prefer that of an indispensable search for minimalism, which constitutes one of the three pillars of our answer to the questionHow to succeed in life?.