Academia between Utopia and Dystopia : Francis Bacon, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Alasdair MacIntyre (2018)
The paper examines two visions of the relation between science and society through the utopian novel New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon, and the dystopian novella New Atlantis, by Ursula K. Le Guin. In Bacon's classic utopia scientists enjoy a high social status and have all imaginable resources at their disposal, whereas Le Guin's contemporary dystopia portrays heroic scientists in a totalitarian state, subjected to imprisonment, torture and constant surveillance for practicing ethical science. Taking a cue from these two texts, I employ MacIntyre's framework of internal and external goods of a practice to discuss the relationship between contemporary academia and the state. The internal goods of science (knowledge, `light', discoveries and inventions) are what scientists contribute to society, whereas the external goods, such as material riches, prestige and power (or the opposites thereof ) are what society supplies the scientists with. My conclusion is that values drawn from a religious tradition can help treat the external goods as the means, and the internal goods as the actual ends of academic practice.
Keywords: pedagogika