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jayrbradley 's review for:
The Demon-Haunted World
by Carl Sagan
Following thoughts aside it was really nice to read about Sagan's role in creating the science center in Ithaca!
This book is a lot of things. It opens very strong with Sagan talking about the wonders of science and discovering things about the natural world and the necessity of scientific literacy for the population. However to build that point, he gets into a bit of a 'debunky' streak that gave me at times a smug new atheist vibe, but it was necessary for what he was trying to put together later on. Using witch hunts and other instances of falseness perpetuated by a lack of public understanding, he argues passionately for not only more scientists, but a greater understanding of science by all and the necessity of supporting scientific inquiry and public science literacy by the government in a manner beyond the defense or market necessities of R&D. He then wonderfully expands that into the need for skeptics and a scientific mindset for us to move past political woes of the time (still present and amplified even now) and hold government accountable.
In many ways Sagan illustrates not just the need for science to be able to escape market demands, but also the humanities, for they develop the culture and the politics that can lead the charge of educating and encouraging scientific inquiry. This does not deminish the challenges young academics may have getting a job, which he touches on briefly, but instead is an argument for a change in policy and mindset amongst all the people in the country for its own sake.
I know I will consider his message in my work as a journalist however that shapes out to be. Just because I or the scientist might see it and know what it means doesn't mean anyone else does, especially those who have been shaped by a school system that seems to have cut the corners of actual learning and developing an academic culture.
This book is a lot of things. It opens very strong with Sagan talking about the wonders of science and discovering things about the natural world and the necessity of scientific literacy for the population. However to build that point, he gets into a bit of a 'debunky' streak that gave me at times a smug new atheist vibe, but it was necessary for what he was trying to put together later on. Using witch hunts and other instances of falseness perpetuated by a lack of public understanding, he argues passionately for not only more scientists, but a greater understanding of science by all and the necessity of supporting scientific inquiry and public science literacy by the government in a manner beyond the defense or market necessities of R&D. He then wonderfully expands that into the need for skeptics and a scientific mindset for us to move past political woes of the time (still present and amplified even now) and hold government accountable.
In many ways Sagan illustrates not just the need for science to be able to escape market demands, but also the humanities, for they develop the culture and the politics that can lead the charge of educating and encouraging scientific inquiry. This does not deminish the challenges young academics may have getting a job, which he touches on briefly, but instead is an argument for a change in policy and mindset amongst all the people in the country for its own sake.
I know I will consider his message in my work as a journalist however that shapes out to be. Just because I or the scientist might see it and know what it means doesn't mean anyone else does, especially those who have been shaped by a school system that seems to have cut the corners of actual learning and developing an academic culture.