WOLNOŚĆ NAUKI KONIECZNOŚĆ I RYZYKO
THE FREEDOM OF SCIENCE: NECESSITY AND RISK

Summary/Abstract: Having assumed that scientifi c (scholarly) research comprises a series of decisions which need to be executed, the author analyzes the categories of “freedom to” and “freedom from” applied to the four essential choices made in science, i.e., those regarding (1) the problem and the research question, (2) the methods used throughout the research, (3) the thesis (theory) which solves the problem explored, and (4) whether or not the research results be published. The analysis leads to the conclusion that freedom, in both senses, is a necessary precondition for the practice of science, and that the reason why this is so is the goal of science as such, namely, obtaining truth conceived as adaequatio intellectus et rei, which makes it possible for humans to build up a coherent vision of the world and to understand it. Since truth has a “binding force” and obliges the researcher to recognize it and to act in accordance with it, freedom is necessary so that the researcher can meet such a duty. Thus freedom provides the basis for mutual trust among those pursuing science. Science, on its part, is “nested” in philosophy and hence moral constraints are internal to science rather than externally imposed on it. However, an actual yet covert threat to the freedom of science is the socio-legal structure which “inclines” researchers to make their professional decisions so that they represent the interests of external parties rather than comply with the goal of science. In such cases pursuing the goal of science turns out “unprofi table” in numerous respects.

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