Some have argued that science and the scientific method is a Trojan horse for liberalism. Those who disparage liberal values are forced by necessity to adopt a great many of them in order to reap the benefits of science.
I don't see how that follows. Did Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia have any trouble utilizing the scientific method?
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Less effectively than did western countries, they lost some of the best minds and talents, and the method may have helped stir liberal unrest in some Soviet satellites.
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Germany is a Western country. Russia is geographically Eastern and culturally Western. Marxism/Communism is Western ideology. Their is a case that their internalized bigotry excluded good scientists. It could equally be said of the U.S. w.r.t potential black scientists.
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let me reiterate though, the claim is that scientific rationalism encourages liberal democracy and I don't see how that follows. most societies have conspicuous examples of internalized bigotry. how is that related to scientific rationalism and liberal democracy?
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Again, it is a thesis I have read some time ago but found convincing. All I would say is that science mitigates against those bigotries, and thrives in spite of, not because of illiberalism. Science will make the most deeply illiberal places, ever so slightly more liberal.
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insofar as practicing good science requires skepticism and divergence from received wisdom, I can agree that those traits are consistent with the values of liberal democracy.
End of conversation
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Soviet Russia had this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism
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yes, and pseudo-scientific racist phrenology theories were popular in the U.S. for a long time. The claim is that embracing of scientific rationalism is a trojan horse for liberal democracy though. I don't see how that follows.
End of conversation
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