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1.4

THE PHENOMENON OF SCIENCE AMIDST TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE CONTEMPORARY LIFE

O.N. KUBALSKYI
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7956-3150
Dobrov Institute for Scientific and Technological Potential and Science History Studies of the NAS of Ukraine

Nauka naukozn. 2023, 1(119): 35—46
https://doi.org/10.15407/sofs2023.01.035

Section: Science of Ukraine in the context of contemporary challenges and threats: problems and priorities of development (summaries and scientific reports of the international symposium)
Language: Ukrainian
Abstract: It is argued that the increasing social significance of science poses the threat for its development, because the current consumer society is dominated by the utilitarian perception of science. Evidence of the fallacy and harmfulness of this view is given. It is stressed that assigning absolute priority to technical-technological and utilitarian-practical functions of science would be unreasonable. A specific feature of the pragmatically oriented science is referred to as doing targeted research which purposes are determined by demands of various institutions, with providing a set of data on targeted financing in the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Problems resulting from science-community interactions in the consumer society context and caused mainly by mercantilist perceptions of science in the consumer society are elaborated on. It is stressed that an attitude like this puts science under threat, because a human who abandoned a search of truth and focused on the utility only would lose a large part of his/her culture and moral spiritual needs that consist, first and foremost, in discovering the outer world and identifying oneself in it. It is argued that the humankind needs the knowledge of the world for not only the pragmatic benefit: the truth cannot be substituted by efficiency or utility, and the total commercialization of science reduces the intellectual and moral level of a society by bringing to naught the core function of science, i.e. explaining the world. The essence and meaning of expert and advisory function of science as a factor enhancing the public administration efficiency is discussed. It is argued that science, apart from constituting a powerful factor for transformations of the contemporary life, is itself undergoing essential change manifested in the occurrence of its new forms, such as “open science” and “citizen science”. Some problems of the Ukrainian science are analyzed. It is shown that the successful development of science is largely dependent on its understanding by power offices, its perception by broader public, and the existence of regular schemes for its support and stimulation at country level. It is emphasized that government offices and the research community need to care about creating high image of science in the national consciousness through active propagation of its achievements using mass media and all the forms of scientific communications.

Keywords: science, society, knowledge, technology, communication.

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