Rousseau. Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad Industrial.
250 aniversario del discurso sobre las ciencias y las artes
SUMMARIES

Rosseau as a Social Philosopher of Science
Ana Rioja

Rousseau`s A Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, the answer to the question posed by the Academy of Dijon as to whether the restoration of the arts and sciences had served to purify the mores, puts forward a resulting philosophical problem of unquestinable validity nowadays. Considered in its own terms, it would be the question of deciding upon the relation between science, virtue and happiness, or if you like, between science and ethics. But,apart from the answer that could be obtained in relation to its mutual compatibility, the deeper issue has to do with pertinence, or even best, with the impertinence of an analysis of human knowledge which lacks any interpretation from the cognitive point of view.

The selling of Air. The Sciences in Rousseau
Mariano Hormigón Blánquez

Science in Rousseau`s work in the air that accompanied the process of selling or situating his doctrine. It has not a reasonable, unique or uniform position in his theoretical discourse. Besides being linked to the social denouncement in a very farfetched way, its perversity is not adequately or deductively reasoned. It falls into a lot of contradictions. I have already referred to the defense of the useful science -very much of that time - in the context of Emile with respect to astronomy, so why should astronomy, although it is only the practical one, be corrupted by superstition - about which there would be a lot to say - or should it be useless and a sign of idleness if it is devoted to inquire into the basic features? Why should knowing about entomology be pernicious and indiferent for the development of society? Supposing that it intended to be coherent, Rousseau`s discourse has the objective of destroying an unjust and corrupted society and then replacing it with a society of virtuous men and women, governed and ruled rightly as they would do in a state of nature - there would be a lot to say about this as well; in that context, the sciences, the arts, technical or fine, have no place, and they are, therefore. air. Air that is useful to attract attention because it can provoke controversy. In commercial policy, it is convenient that they speak about you, even if they do not speak well of you.

Progress or Regression? Present Perspective on the Rousseau`s Discours about the Sciences and Arts.
José María Laso Prieto

After putting Rousseau`s discourse into the context of the philosophy of the Enlightenment and pointing out the discrepancies with authors such as Holbach or Helvétius, which were already evidente even then, the author turns to the marxist interpretation of science to disagree openly with Rouseau`s view. He ends with the following quotation of Holbach`s : "Man`s all ills come from ignorance, from mistakes and concerns. The solution for these ills is Truth.- Apologia of Philosophy-Of its usefulness in politics and morals - of the influence of religious and political concerns in man`s mores. Without education they cannot be happy and vistuous-Truth, sooner or later, must prevail".

The Discours about Sciences and Arts: a Pamphletary Consideration.
Vidal Peña

With regard to the First Discourse, its rational-argumentative nature (as a "lucid" radical criticism, prelude of later radical criticisms)has been defended against the interpretation of the Discourse as a purely and naively intuitive-preromantic, which stresses the overly sentiment of the spontaneous and happy "man of nature" as opposed to the corrupting affectation of Culture. Perharps we should establish some distinction here. On the one hand, the generic value of the body of Rousseau`s works to establish a certain kind of critical conscience, generic too, of the idea of Progress ( a historical value, as an operating influence till the present time); on the other hand, the precise intelectual merit of the First Discourse considered in itself.Regarding this last part, and despite some peolple`s subtle efforts to save the rethoric of that text as if it were a rigorous and profound work, I think that it is an endeavor without much hope; excuse us the rudeness of the espresion, but it seems difficult to redeem Rousseau`s First Discourse from its more o less foolish nature.

J.J. Rousseau: Culture and Hiding
José Avello Flórez

(Tis article serves as a general introduction to the two unpublished documents by Rousseau included in this magazine, translated fron French By Professor José Avello and which he comments critically).

Rousseau`s work tell us the story of a crucial loss: man. Man has lost himself, has lost his human nature. First he broke away from his origin and then he got lost in that splitting, covered by its signs. Like Adam and Eve with their figleaf after they found themselves naked. The dramatic way in which Rousseau faces this loss in all his works comes from the fact that the splitting, the fundamental wound, is for him nothing but Culture: society, language, science, art and thoughtful knowledge. Only human beings that have split are capable of reflecting, as does the light on a mirror, but the mirror on which man is reflected is distorted and Culture is the reason for that distortion. The picture that the mirror gives back is not just false but completely corrupted and guilty, since under its celebrated forms of civilization, history and social order, it helps to justify explotation and iniquity.

The History of Science at the Crossroad: About the Ambiguity of the Concepts.
Pedro M. Pruna Goodgall

The author reviews the difficulties that the practise of the history of science brings about in relation to the historian`s own work, whose own procedures are in continuous discussion, as well as in relation to the theories of science themselves. But at the same time, the social function of science, its relation to ideologies and the new scope of the social studies of sicence, the field of CTS, etc., make a detailed and philosophically delicate definition of the practice of the history of science more difficult and more necessary.

The Materialistic View of Science and Technology Among Americans.
Paul R. Josephson

American rightly believe that science and technology have helped them to achieve a standard of living higher than anywhere else in the world. Accordingly, for them science and technology occupy a hallowed position, and scientists and engineers are largely good, trustworthy, and honest individuals. For the author, the contradictory views among Americans about modern science can be summarized in three concepts which he calls the use-abuse dichotomy, scientific inquiry whithout limits, and real cost and risk postponement. These three concepts guide his works. A value-neutral idea of science, a providential and apolitical view of what science really is, though it is very American, and an association of the value of science with the consumer goods that it contributes towards producing. The author concludes that by assuming that science and technology are value neutral and that there should be few limits upon scientists`activities, though Americans fret about risks associated with some of those activities, they run the risk of ignoring the true cost, the limits and the risks of modern science and technology.

Man, Cosmos, Science and Good. The Ethical Pillars of the Soviet Science.
Antonio Fernández Ortiz

The main aim of the Soviet project, in its traditional component, was building the "Kingdom of God" on earth. Science was the essential means by which the Soviet power was to achieve comunism, which was seen as the return to a paradise of btrotherhood of human beings; this aim was to be achieved, amongst other things,thought the almost magical powers of science and technology. The Soviet technology inherited the ethical and moral categories of the traditional Russian society, and with them, the categories of good and evil. Russian cosmism, one of the most important Russian schools of thought on solidarity, had a crucial role in this inheritance.
The phiilosophical system developed by Nikolai F. Fiodorov stresses the association between man`s energy, man`s work, and God`s will to free the world from evil, destruction and death. Man is destined to control nature, to rule it and to try to achieve good for humankind. Russian cosmism promoted the development of philosophy and the theoretical and practical development of specific areas of the Russian scientific research,such as the Soviet Cosmic Programme, at the same time as it theories turned into the fundamental part of the ethical bases of Soviet science. Fiodorov`s cosmic ideas were an essential part or bolchevism, which, despite its cosmic component, did not deny the intellectual and scientific tradition of the Enlightenment. The strength of bolchevism lied precisely on the presence of both cultural traditions, the European Enlightenment and the Russian cosmism.

Cuba: From the Kostantinov`s Manual to the CTS Adventure
Félix Valdés García

The author deals with the question of the introduction of the CTS studies in Cuba, in the context of the ministerial changes introduced in the curricula in the subject of philosophy, in the context of the falling apart of the communist block, the special economic situation in Cuba and its clearly hostile international context. Regarding this, it studies how the approach called the "CTS movement" has left its mark in the curricula, with the resulting introduction of all the topics of the so-called CTS movement, which the author studies deeply and critically. He claims that it is necessary to recover and support those features of historical materialism still existing and operating, so there is no need to insist on the futile handbooks of the Diamat.

The CTS Studies in the European Comunity.
Luis Aparicio Muñoz

The author explains the present situation of the studies related to the field of CTS in Europe. He concludes that the "typically" European CTS studies are the interdisciplinary developmentsthat have been coming up in Europe as a result of the study of the complex relations existing between the scientific-technological field and the social world. As to Europe, the author thinks that the CTS studies have their main origin in Socilogy and Economics. In the sociological field, it is about the break with the Mertonian sociology of science in the 1970s. The "strong programme"of the School of Edinmburgh and the Empirical Programme of Relativism (EPOR) of the School of Bath (social constructivism, in so far as they underline the social formation of knowledge, are considered the main precedents (disciplinary) of the specific CTS approach. As to economics, the precedents would lie in the criticism to the lineal models which explain technological developments. He subsequently reviews the SCOT/TCOS programmes and serveral other projects of the frame research programmes in the European Union (especially those in the socio-economical fields and he ends by rewiewing the last joint conference between the American SSSS and the European EASST: 4S/EASST 2000 "Worlds in Transition : Techno-science, Citizenry and Culture in the 21 st Century".

Bioethic for Everybody in the 21st Century
Félix Daniel Piedra Herrera

The author tackles the question of the moral options raised by development of technology: a dichotomy which became apparent thought the gulf between the two cultures in the Snowian sense. The traditional dichotomy was "transmuted" by the appearance of the market and by the interpretation of every problem thought the market. The concept of "sustanaible development" has also been modified by the market. The same thing has happened to the concept of bioethics, which used to have a clear political meaning and not a clearly medical one when the Oncologist Van Rensselaer Potter coined it in 1970, but which has become reduced to this latter meaning. A meaning that hat its origin in an article which appeared in Life in 1962, in which the problem posed is strictly medical-mercantilist. Dr. Piedra concludes: "the medical variant is the one which has prevailed in the specialized fields and in mass media in general" . However, he insists on claiming the interpretation that Van Rensselaer Potter had put forward, found in his Bioética Profunda y Global para un Tercer Milenio Vivible. An option which Daniel Piedra believes that can serve as a bridge between both cultures, a bridge leading to the future.

Notes on Technique
Gustavo Bueno

This is an abstract of the lectures, given in Gijón, on Science, Technology and Society from the point of view of philosophical materalism. The abstract includes the notes that Professor Bueno offered in his lectures on Technique from the materialistic philosophical approach.The author tackles the question of the definition of technique and the difference between technique and technology, the difference between animal techniques and human techniques, the definition of the idea of tool and automatism, and its conceptual consequences, the question of the origin and the structure of the human techniques, about the concept of rule, the criticism to the pseudo-problem of man and technique, as it is expressed by Protagoras`s myth, the relationship between technique and society and the relationship between techniques and science.