The previous LOTRW post reflecting on science diplomacy triggered two responses that prompt this brief postscript.
The first came from a social-scientist/Facebook friend via Messenger. My colleague opined:
The concept of what is valid academic scholarship and research must change first. At [a certain academic institution], my chapters and monographs for the IPCC, WMO, and WHO were not considered academic enough for promotion. I saw this also in national scientific meetings. I believe all scientists should take a course in the philosophy of science.
Possibly misinterpreting the message, but it clearly came from a place of deep pain. Think my colleague was saying that to expect academic scientists to enter the diplomacy arena in a serious and sustained way requires that an appropriate recognition/reward structure for such work must be put into place within the academic community.
From his lips to God’s ears!
His observation was eye-opening, as so many of the thoughts he’s shared over past decades. Triggered a rush of thoughts. To start, university failures to acknowledge and adequately reward an academician’s broader impacts indeed frustrate faculty, especially those whose research work is fertile ground for such practical use. This problem is universal – not confined to any one institution. It surfaces as well at the NSF level – in the form of a requirement that proposals address not only intellectual merit versus broader impacts. This has come in for its own share of criticism (here’s one example). But this particular problem may be low on any fix-it lists for university leaders, who are struggling to garner research dollars in the face of larger financial uncertainties, including constrained or declining state funding; reduce barriers to recruitment and retention of international students; ferret out and remove racism in curricula and on campus; and more. This while they’re attempting to stem the bloating of university administration – and at the same time retain their own jobs.
Not to mention the hollowing-out of entire academic departments – notably computer science, data science, and AI. Faculty in these disciplines find the salaries and reward structure for such work far more attractive in the private sector, even as incoming students clamor for cutting-edge curricula.
This latter challenge reminds me. In writing the post, I’d been thinking of science diplomacy as a career for Ph.D. scientists of every stripe – positions embedded in the U.S. State Department, or in the myriad international offices of federal- and state-level government offices, or the private sector – versus a sideline in academic work. My apologies for failing to clarify that.
The second comment on the post came from John Plodinec. Quoting him here:
Another definition: Ambrose Bierce defined diplomacy as “the patriotic art of lying for one’s country.”
While I grant that we have encouraged people to specialize in STEM topics, I don’t agree that that is why “public trust in Science is declining.” To me, it is much more likely that the arrogance of many scientists AND the increasing slide from objectivity to activism has soured the Public. Too many of us overly appreciate our islands of knowledge while ignoring the vast oceans of our ignorance.
Well said, John! Regular readers of the blog may recognize this isn’t his first comment over LOTRW’s fourteen years. His thoughts are insightful and at the same time refreshingly blunt. My earlier Walter Trumbell quote suggests I spent perhaps more time than prudent caroming through the rabbit hole of diplomacy quotes, and yet that piquant Ambrose Bierce quote escaped my notice. Really captured the idea! As for personalizing the reason for declining public trust in science, that’s not a matter of either-or. If many scientists (particularly of his and my generation) are arrogant, that “stems” in part from the Sputnik-era’s idea that STEM needn’t have been for everyone; the public education system could focus attention on a limited (and therefore in some sense elite) few students of the right inclination and some natural ability. Events since have highlighted the dangers and inequities of such a policy approach.
As for the slide from objectivity to activism, this represents a real and abiding problem for science and scientists. I blogged on this back in August of 2018, and have touched on the fringes of the subject repeatedly before and since. For example, as I noted in EOS in 2015,
In Earth sciences, our proposed social contract sounds dangerously close to this: “We’re in the business of documenting human failure. But lately, the speed, complexity, and magnitude of that failure has picked up—with respect to management of natural resources, environmental stewardship, and hazard risk. If our documentation is to keep pace, we need more funding.”
To a beset, struggling general public this can easily look unhelpful, even arrogant. In today’s polarized and beleaguered society, that’s dangerous.
But if we “slide into activism” (and by the way, this phrasing itself contains a whiff of arrogance) and are artless, ham-fisted about it, we deserve all the criticism we get. The best we can hope for is that most of us, and the majority of our work, focus on the science – but that at least a few of us, and some of our work – clearly labeled as non-science, but in some way science-informed – attempt to make the connection to real-world needs.
In closing, I’d like to call everyone’s attention to a really interesting column by David Brooks, writing in the New York Times, entitled You’re only as smart as your emotions. His perspective deserves a read and reflection on the part of academics, both faculty and administrators, and scientists of every stripe contemplating engagement with the larger society. His opening, to whet your interest:
If I were asked to list the major intellectual breakthroughs of the last half-century, I would certainly include the revolution in our understanding of emotion.
For thousands of years, it was common in Western thought to imagine that there was an eternal war between reason and our emotions. In this way of thinking, reason is cool, rational and sophisticated. Emotions are primitive, impulsive and likely to lead you astray. A wise person uses reason to override and control the primitive passions. A scientist, business executive or any good thinker should try to be objective and emotionally detached, kind of like a walking computer that cautiously weighs evidence and calculates the smartest way forward.
Modern neuroscience has delivered a body blow to this way of thinking. If people thought before that passions were primitive and destructive, now we understand that they are often wise. Most of the time emotions guide reason and make us more rational. It’s an exaggeration, but maybe a forgivable one, to say that this is a turnabout to rival the Copernican Revolution in astronomy.
You know you want to read more! And you should do so.