The Customization of Science ─ The Impact of Religious and Political Worldviews on Contemporary Science

This book explores whether and how religious and secular worldviews and political ideologies held by scientists, citizens, decision-makers and politicians influence science as practiced and understood today. In this book, customized science is defined as a science built according to - or altered and fitted to - a particular group's specifications, that is, its needs, interests or values, its political ideology or worldview. It is science governed not merely by goals such as increased knowledge and explanatory power, but also by goals such as economic growth, sustainable development, the equality of women or the end of religion. The contributions to this book discuss, with regard to particular worldviews and themes connected to the public role of science, whether science is increasingly becoming customized to fit the needs and interests of various groups in society, but also what the consequences of such a development may be both for science and society.

Steve Fuller is Auguste Comte Professor of Social Epistemology at the University of Warwick, UK. He has published more than twenty books, including Humanity 2.0 and Preparing for Life in Humanity 2.0. His work has been translated into twenty languages.

Ulf Zackariasson is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Uppsala University, Sweden. He is the author of Forces by Which We Live: Religion and Religious Experience from the Perspective of a Pragmatic Philosophical Anthropology.

Mikael Stenmark is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Uppsala University, Sweden. His publications include How to Relate Science and Religion, Environmental Ethics and Environmental Policy Making, Scientism: Science, Ethics and Religion, and most recently Religions in Conflict? (in Swedish).