Has science lost its innocence? A quarter of a century later on the essay by Prof. Irena Szumilewicz-Lachman

Abstract

The article analyses Prof. Irena Szumilewicz-Lachman's essay Czy nauka straciła swoją niewinność? from the perspective of a quarter of a century since its creation. The author attempts a critical discussion of the theses contained therein, taking into account logical decomposition and formalisation as a tool of analysis, concerning the moral responsibility of scientists, with particular emphasis on the problem of the loss of the innocence of science in the face of the development of modern technologies and their potentially destructive consequences. The text presents historical examples of the attitudes of scholars from Socrates and Copernicus, through Archimedes and Poincaré, to the time of the discovery of radioactive elements, and confronts them with the challenges of the present day. The analysis is conducted against the background of Kantian deontology, which allows for a reinterpretation of the relationship between the freedom of the researcher and his moral responsibility towards society.