Adventures in Ethics and Science: Fuller on Mooney on science.

Dr Freeride (aka Janet Stemwedel) is doing a great fisking of Steve Fuller on Chris Mooney's book The Republican War on Science which Fuller thinks is advocacy for "clients". Read it.

One thing that occurred to me is that talk of "clients" suggests that scientists are somehow just another interest-bearer in the public polity. While this is true, that's a bit like saying that elite athletes are just another interested party in professional sport. The point of science is that scientists do it for reasons of gaining knowledge. If they do other stuff that is universally human, like jockey for funding and position and contributing to the social "discourse" (i.e., free-for-all), then that is to be expected. But that doesn't mean that science is only about personal or professional interest. It's also about the science, stupid.