Science and Ideology, A Comparative History

by Mark Walker (Editor)

Does science work best in a democracy? Were 'Soviet' or 'Nazi' science fundamentally different from science in the USA? These questions have been passionately debated in the recent past. Particular developments in science took place under particular political regimes, but they may or may not have been directly determined by them.
Science and Ideology brings together a number of comparative case studies to examine the relationship between science and the dominant ideology of a state. Cybernetics in the USA is compared to France and the Soviet Union. Postwar Allied science policy in occupied Germany is juxtaposed to that in Japan. The essays are narrowly focussed, yet cover a wide range of countries and ideologies. The collection provides a unique comparative history of scientific policies and practices in the 20th century.

Contents

Notes on contributors

1 Introduction: science and ideology (Mark Walker)

2 Science and totalitarianism: lessons for the twenty-first century (Yakov M. Rabkin, Elena Z. Mirskaya)

3 "Ideologically correct" science (Michael Gordin, Walter G. Grunden, Mark Walker, Zuoyue Wang)

4 From communications engineering to communications science: Cybernetics and information theory in the United States, France, and the Soviet Union (David Mindell, Jerome Segal, Slava Gerovitch)

5 Science polic y in post-1945 West Germany and Japan: between ideology and economics (Richard H. Beyler, Morris F. Low)

6 The transformation of nature under Hitler and Stalin (Paul Josephson, Thomas Zeller)

7 Legitimation through use: rocket and aeronautic research in the Third Reich and the U.S.A. (Burghard Ciesla, Helmuth Trischler)

8 Weaving network s: the University of Jena in the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the postwar East German state (Uwe Hossfeld, Jürgen John, Rüdiger Stutz)

9 Friedrich Möglichr: A scientist's journey from fascism to communism (Dieter Hoffmann, Mark Walker)

Index

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2002

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Walker clearly and succintly states what the book is about in the introduction:

How does ideology affect science? Does it hurt or help, or is this dichotomy too simplistic? Science is normally portrayed as ideology-free, and ideology is usually accused of interfering with or distorting science. As the contributions to this book demonstrate, however, the interaction of science and ideology is more subtle, complex, and interesting than this model of science and ideology as separate spheres would imply.

The discussion of science and ideology during the first three decades since the end of the Second World War has been dominated by the legacy of National Socialism and the pressure exerted by the Cold War. As this introduction will show, this dominance has had a long-lasting influence on our understanding of how ideology and science interact. This literature also makes clear that ideology can affect science in two very different ways: (1) ideological pressure on scientists (as on everyone) for political conformity; and (2) ideological interference in the practice of science itself.

The ideological pressure on science is studied by historical comparisons between the impact on science or scientists in two or more regimes such as the Jacobins during the French Revolution (briefly), the Third Reich in Nazi Germany, Communism in the Soviet Union, wartime and postwar Japan, communist China, postwar East and West Germany, and, ever so lightly, USA at the time of the McCarthy hearings. The book covers areas in pseudoscience, such Aryan physics, eugenics, and Lyshenkoism, and in science such as atomic science, rocket science and aeronautics, forestry science, cybernetics, solid state physics, and road engineering, Some essays pay particular attention to so-called ideologically correct science; chapter five (Science policy in post-1945 West Germany and Japan: between ideology and economics) is concerned with postwar science policy. In his introduction Walker succintly sums up the essay:

Richard Beyler and Morris Low demonstrate how, in both countries, debates over science policy played an important role in both economics and ideology. Discussions of the political significance of science, and the social role of scientists, served as a forum for alternative visions for ideological reconstruction. The basic American occupation strategy consisted of democratization, stabilization, and economic reconstruction, but during the Cold War the occupation authorities alsobecame concerned about the economic and political deployment of science. On one hand, science could be used to stabilize and internationally integrate the occupied countries, but on the other hand, the occupation powers were also fearful of the ideological uses that science might be put to by suspect intellectuals. As the authors describe in their essay, the subsequent relationship between scientific expertise and public policy was sometimes turbulent.

I highly recommend most of the essays, even if, like From communications engineering to communications science: Cybernetics and information theory in the United States, France, and the Soviet Union they occasionally become overdetailed and hard to follow. There are two exceptions to this blanket recommendations: the last two chapters, Weaving networks: the University of Jena in the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the postwar East German state and Friedrich Möglichr: A scientist's journey from fascism to communism, which though interesting in concept, drown the big picture in far too much distracting and overspecialized minutiae.

If I had to choose two outstanding chapters, I would, with some hesitation single out 6 The transformation of nature under Hitler and Stalin by Paul Josephson and Thomas Zeller, and 7 Legitimation through use: rocket and aeronautic research in the Third Reich and the U.S.A. by Burghard Ciesla, Helmuth Trischler. For those interested in rebuilding science and engineering after the collapse of an ideologically-driven regime, I feel 5 Science policy in post-1945 West Germany and Japan: between ideology and economics by Richard H. Beyler and Morris F. Low is worth reading carefully.

The book devotes very little space, if any, to the social sciences – Psychology is particularly rich area to mine, in this respect. Ideological issues and impacts on the development of science in the USA are also missing, save for a peek at the Oppenheimer affaire at the height of the Cold War and a few aggressive remarks by the German emigré aeronautical engineer Tasso Proppe which is worth quoting in full:

Proppe was disturbed by the strong influence of ideology on th e social relationships in America during the Cold War, even when compared to his experiences in the Third Reich . It was precisely this ideological effect th at he saw as the actual binding element of American society, essentially a mixture of politics, democratic rituals, naive nationalism, superficial religiosity and moralism. "The freedom and democracy that is so loudly and over zealously praised, " he wrote reflectively at th e end of the 1980s, "is by closer inspection quite hollow." However, he was already of th is opinion in the middle of the 1950s. At that time he described at greater length why he found American freedom and democracy so unconvincing:

Everything is certainly not rosy and wonderful. The superlatives in the dimensions of space, time, mass, standard of living, are always imposing. Compared to our earlier existence they give us the feeling of boundless distances and prosperity. This is often confused with the feeling of freedom. However, in the meantime we have found that freedom is a completely relative concept. Restrictions under which one grows up are not noticed, but it is hard to get used to new restrictions. If one discussed freedom with an American, then sooner or later the classic example of American freedom will come into the conversation: anyone can call the President of the United States a scoundrel, without anything happening to him. However, if one would dare to describe the democratic system in the U.S.A . as corrupt - and there was some justification for doing so - then one would be guilty of lèse-majesté [...]

I would strongly urge STEM students, professionals and researchers to read at least two chapters in this book -in today's ideologically fraught societies they would, I believe, serve as sobering warnings that STEM disciplines are neither ideology-free nor guarantee free and healthy societies on their own.