Prognozy naukowych wizjonerów a powszechne poglądy o roli nauki we współczesnym świecie
Forecasts of scientific visionaries and their references to common beliefs about the role of science in the contemporary world

Summary/Abstract: In the popular works of charismatic scientists you can find messages which present scientific code as the only appropriate way of speaking about reality. However, the history of science shows that strongly optimistic opinions about the role of the elements of the scientific system in the process of overcoming all the problems of humanity are not a new phenomenon. From the psychological point of view, it is interesting to identify the conditions of shaping of attitudes towards science among people who meet popular scientific information every day. In the article some results of works on psychological tool designed to examine many aspects of strongly scientistic worldview described as “scientotheism” were presented. During researches on the sample of 508 adult Poles, from the primary set of questionnaire items we selected these which were characterized by the highest level of accordance of examined people’s attitudes. Because of the high level of agreement/disagreement, answers connected with these items can be perceived as a sample survey of common convictions about the role of the elements of scientific system in the contemporary world. Analysis of collected data shown that examined people perceived scientific research as rather useful activity which brought the real increase of knowledge about world, gave them tools to cope with common problems and had positive influence on everyday life. On the other hand, common convictions of the examined people were that there were phenomena which cannot be scientifically explained and that forecasts which said that we would achieve the full knowledge about the world could not be serious. Furthermore, respondents frequently thought that science could only partially reduce common fears. Commonly they contested also the statement that science could erase conflicts which occurred among people.

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