You know, it occurs to me, remember all those statistics about how your country is spending ‘only’ x percentage of national income on science, while every other county is doing so much better, spending x+y percent? Well, what we are seeing now is the result of this ‘lets spend on science’ mantra.
Corruption most foul.
To me, even as a libertarian, cutting science budgets feels like heresy. Even though heresy is a null concept.
At various Universities I have attended the philosophy of science has tended not to be taught as a discrete concept (although I did look at doing a Masters in the History and Philosophy of Science at Kings), but more as something picked up through osmosis during the course of study.
Maybe a unit on Ethics should become a requirement for all degrees? Although it will be hijacked by the righteous, guaranteed – a subject like that is right up their alley.
Not all science is corrupt, thank god.
Environmental Science is rather different. It is a rather recent innovation. Previously people would have studied various other disciplines like Physic, Chemistry, or Geography. Its creation coincided with the modern idea of making science “relevant” - a code word for imbuing a subject with subsidiary political values. In this case the politics of environmentalism precede the science.
Environmental Science bears comparison to Creation Science - in both cases the science serves a “higher” purpose with the result that truth is inevitably corrupted by the demand.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Google “post-normal science”. This politicization you mention, TDK, is explicit. And they’re proud of it.