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Imagining the Future: Science and American Democracy
From stem cell research to global warming, human cloning, evolution, and beyond, political debates about science have raged in recent years - and, to the chagrin of most observers, have increasingly fallen into the familiar categories of America's culture wars. In Imagining the Future: Science and American Democracy, Yuval Levin explores the complicated meanings of science and technology in American politics and finds that the science debates have a lot to teach us about our political life. These debates, Levin argues, reveal some serious challenges to American self-government, and put on stark display the deepest strengths and greatest weaknesses of both the left and the right. "American life has been profoundly shaped by science and technology, and will be all the more so in the coming decades, making it crucial that we understand how to think and speak about science in politics. Yuval Levin's smart and eminently well-reasoned book makes the important point that the purpose of science is a moral one -- to improve human life -- and that judging what that involves is sometimes a job for more than science alone in a democratic society. Levin's insights speak directly to today's political debates and make his book a must-read for policymakers and all those who care about science and society." --Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House "Imagining the Future goes far beyond the contemporary polarized debates over science to unpack the moral premises of the modern scientific project and its consequences for American democracy. In the process, Yuval Levin provides us with a deep understanding of policy issues from genetic engineering to global warming." --Francis Fukuyama, Johns Hopkins University "This book is important to the thinking of both progressives and conservatives. Clearly and incisively, it shows how science and technology are shaping humanity's future and world views. Levin alerts democratic societies that human dignity and equality are imperiled unless we provide political and moral guidance to prevent the submergence of humanity in its own ingenuity." --Edmund Pellegrino, Chairman, President's Council on Bioethics
145 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 2008
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About the author
Yuval Levin
37 books153 followersYuval Levin is an Israeli-American political analyst, public intellectual, academic and journalist. His areas of specialty include health care, entitlement reform, economic and domestic policy, science and technology policy, political philosophy, and bioethics. He holds a BA from American University and a PhD from the University of Chicago.
He is the founding editor of National Affairs, director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a contributing editor of National Review and a senior editor of The New Atlantis.
Levin was vice president and Hertog Fellow of Ethics and Public Policy Center, executive director of the President's Council on Bioethics, Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy under President George W. Bush and contributing editor to The Weekly Standard. Prior to that he served as a congressional staffer at the member, committee, and leadership levels.
He is the founding editor of National Affairs, director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a contributing editor of National Review and a senior editor of The New Atlantis.
Levin was vice president and Hertog Fellow of Ethics and Public Policy Center, executive director of the President's Council on Bioethics, Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy under President George W. Bush and contributing editor to The Weekly Standard. Prior to that he served as a congressional staffer at the member, committee, and leadership levels.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 19, 2024
In “Imagining the Future: Science and American Democracy,” Yuval Levin explores the complicated interaction of science and technology in American politics and examines the subtle and not so subtle challenges science and technology pose to self-government. These debates, Levin contends, reveal the understandings the left and the right hold about man, nature, and the meaning of human existence.
The author notes that Aristotle saw in nature a process of becoming directed by purpose. Man’s ultimate purpose was to be noble and virtuous, to establish political communities based on justice and reason. The moderns in contrast lowered their sights; rather than speculating on the nature of man, they sought to articulate what man should strive to avoid. As Levin argues, this has transformed science into a quest to maintain safety and health. Hence, in political debates, health has become the preeminent value. Scientists- think Anthony Faucci- have been allowed to dictate all aspects of public policy; technology has replaced courage as a virtue, and raw power is deployed in its service.
Stem cell research, global warming, human cloning, and disease mitigation have dominated political debates in recent years. And, like virtually every other contentious subject, they have increasingly fallen into the vortex of America’s culture wars.
Levin addresses some of the key dilemmas of the science debates. The left, ostensibly committed to an anthropology of innovation, believes the challenge we face is marshaling science to ameliorate man’s condition by progressively enhancing his understanding and power. In contrast the right is less sanguine about innovation. They hold to an anthropology of generations. They believe our challenges are not new. We must prepare the young for the vicissitudes of life, and preserve the institutions that further this end.
Should science be above politics, or should it answer to the democratic process? Is science too technically complicated to be left to politicians and public debate? Is science morally neutral, or does it change our very nature? Is the right waging a war on science and reason itself by questioning the reach of public policies that invoke science? Is the left justified in calling itself the party of science, particularly when it contains a significant plurality that adhere to postmodernist visions of truth?
Most of the science debates, Levin concludes, come down to a profound conflict of visions between liberals and conservatives with respect to the future. Science is only one front in this dispute, but it is the most important insofar as it represents the wedge that could be employed to eradicate democratic self- government, or human dignity itself.
The author notes that Aristotle saw in nature a process of becoming directed by purpose. Man’s ultimate purpose was to be noble and virtuous, to establish political communities based on justice and reason. The moderns in contrast lowered their sights; rather than speculating on the nature of man, they sought to articulate what man should strive to avoid. As Levin argues, this has transformed science into a quest to maintain safety and health. Hence, in political debates, health has become the preeminent value. Scientists- think Anthony Faucci- have been allowed to dictate all aspects of public policy; technology has replaced courage as a virtue, and raw power is deployed in its service.
Stem cell research, global warming, human cloning, and disease mitigation have dominated political debates in recent years. And, like virtually every other contentious subject, they have increasingly fallen into the vortex of America’s culture wars.
Levin addresses some of the key dilemmas of the science debates. The left, ostensibly committed to an anthropology of innovation, believes the challenge we face is marshaling science to ameliorate man’s condition by progressively enhancing his understanding and power. In contrast the right is less sanguine about innovation. They hold to an anthropology of generations. They believe our challenges are not new. We must prepare the young for the vicissitudes of life, and preserve the institutions that further this end.
Should science be above politics, or should it answer to the democratic process? Is science too technically complicated to be left to politicians and public debate? Is science morally neutral, or does it change our very nature? Is the right waging a war on science and reason itself by questioning the reach of public policies that invoke science? Is the left justified in calling itself the party of science, particularly when it contains a significant plurality that adhere to postmodernist visions of truth?
Most of the science debates, Levin concludes, come down to a profound conflict of visions between liberals and conservatives with respect to the future. Science is only one front in this dispute, but it is the most important insofar as it represents the wedge that could be employed to eradicate democratic self- government, or human dignity itself.
December 28, 2021
As usual, Yuval Levin provides an insightful, deep, and lucid reflection. The thrust of the book is that “arguments about technology are…really arguments about the future. They give voice to different sorts of expectations about progress and change, and to different sorts of intuitions about the character of human life”.
The value of generational continuity inherent in conservative disposition is often discounted in debates over biotechnology as we have little way to understand how new generations will develop and interact with technologies developed today, what Levin calls the anthropology of generations in contrast to the anthropology of innovation.
Those familiar with The New Atlantis will find these themes familiar and much of the substance. Still, there’s much to recommend in this book.
The value of generational continuity inherent in conservative disposition is often discounted in debates over biotechnology as we have little way to understand how new generations will develop and interact with technologies developed today, what Levin calls the anthropology of generations in contrast to the anthropology of innovation.
Those familiar with The New Atlantis will find these themes familiar and much of the substance. Still, there’s much to recommend in this book.
October 4, 2017
This is a fine little volume on political philosophy and science by my favorite political thinker. Levin does a great job of looking at the strengths and shortcomings of both conservative and liberal/progressive thinkers with respect to science. One of the things I love most about him is that he doesn't hide his solidly conservative worldview, while pulling no punches with respect to weaknesses in conservative arguments regarding bioethics and other scientific matters.
March 24, 2012
Mr. Levin, the founding editor of National Affairs and a former Bush White House staff member, has delivered a rich analysis of contemporary American political debates over science and technology. Focusing predominantly on the ethics of biotechnology, Imagining the Future distinguishes itself by shedding more light than heat in an area of public discussion that is more frequently characterized by the latter. Readers of both Left and Right will surely benefit from Mr. Levin’s even-handed probing of the weak spots in their respective positions. My full review is available here.
March 20, 2022
Fantastic and fascinating read about how science and democracy fit together and the prejudices of both sides of the political aisle.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews