When Ideology Eclipses Science
By Robert T. Pennock
Upholding objectivity in a polarized polis.
This Article From Issue
July-August 2024
Volume 112, Number 4
Page 210
What role should science and its special virtues play in the life of the state? Aristotle argued that any inquiry into ethics requires consideration of politics, which involves the well-ordering of communities. It is hard to be virtuous, so we need a supportive political structure to flourish. In Politics, he examined different political constitutions, asking which are best in the ideal and in real-world circumstances. Aristotle argued for a polity, a form of government that combines democracy with a stabilizing form of oligarchy, because he took simple democracies to be unstable, being susceptible to disruption by demagogues.
QUICK TAKE
- A supportive political structure can aid human flourishing, especially during times of uncertainty, and objective science can help to hold the bonds of democracies together.
- The recent solar eclipse highlights the abilities of scientific research, which was used to plot the path of the totality years in advance; earlier eclipses provided evidence of relativity.
- Political polarization can skew the interpretation and implementation of scientific findings, but ensuring that scientific findings are objective can be unifying.
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