CHANGING POLITICAL FUNCTIONS OF SCIENCE IN THE MODERN LIBERAL-DEMOCRACTIC STATE.

The emergence of science as a means to salvation in the 16th and 17th century Europe was associated with important shift in religious orientations and socioeconomic conditions. The concern of this essay is with a very different phase in the role of science in the western polity; the signs of its declining cultural force in the late 20th century liberal democracy and the diminishment of the capacity to support movements of collective amelioration. The author will argue that the place and status of science in the liberal-democratic polity are largely a consequence of the perceived relevance of science to the particular needs and problems which arise in the context of organizing and maintaining this specific type of political order.