On Intellectual and Instrumental Values in Science

Webpage for an essay by Oded Goldreich


Abstract

This opinionated essay discusses the role of intellectual and instrumental values in scientific fields, and the way these values evolve due to internal and external forces. It identifies two sources of the decline of intellectual values within a scientific field: (1) the direct intervention of outsiders in the dynamics of (successful) scientific fields, and (2) the decline of intellectual values in the society at large.

Note: This essay expands on the general discussion part of my prior essay entitled On the status of intellectual values in TOC. The latter essay combined an (opinionated analysis of an) empirical social study of the change in values in TOC with a general discussion of the role and dynamics of intellectual and instrumental values in scientific fields. The current essay focuses on the general discussion, while clarifying and expanding it.

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