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Dick Taverne, a member of the House of Lords' science and technology committee, and Chairman of Sense about Science, has just published an eloquent new book which is to be thoroughly recommended- The March of Unreason: Science, Democracy and the New Fundamentalism (Oxford University Press, 17 March 2005).
A news story from the Sunday Telegraph about the book highlights Taverne's views about the biotechnology debate in the UK, suggesting that
Aid agencies and environmentalists have deceived the public over genetically modified crops by deliberately ignoring scientific evidence that supports the technology
Taverne writes as a layman interested in science, calling himself a "passionate believer in the importance of reason and truth":
I believe non-scientists and especially politicians who are concerned about the interaction of science with society should take special care to try to understand and evaluate scientific evidence about controversial questions of the day. (p.11)
...In arguments for and against particular scientific developments or about science and society, distinctions between left and right are meaningless. What is at stake is the role of reason in democracy. What is also at stake is truth. (p.11)
The main intellectual case against science and technology, which has also contributed to the march of unreason, is the assault by postmodernists and relativists on the very citadel of science itself, its claim to objectivity and to being value-free. (p.14)
It is a peculiar intellectual blind spot of modern conservatives that they see the primary threat to science and reason coming from "postmodernism" rather than the decidedly pre-modern superstitions that fuel the base of their party.
Posted by: Dave Roberts at March 29, 2005 05:02 PM