+ Reductionist Science as Epistemological Violence Vandana Shiva Presentation and summary by: Sonia Bhagat Global Flows Fall 2010
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Reductionist Science as Epistemological ViolenceVandana Shiva
Presentation and summary by:Sonia BhagatGlobal Flows Fall 2010
+About Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva is is a philosopher, environmental activist, eco feminist and author.
+Reductionist Science as Epistemological Violence
Modern science is violent even where the objective of scientific research is not violence, but human welfare
Modern science is quintessentially reductionist. Economic structure based on exploitation, profit
maximization, and capital accumulation
+The linkage between modern science and a profit-based economic system can be discerned in the following examples:
1. Desertification2. Diarrhea3. Deforestation
* Violence is committed against the subject of knowledge, the object of knowledge, the beneficiary of knowledge and against knowledge itself.
+Assumptions that guide modern science The Ontological Assumptions
A system is reducible to its parts All systems are made up of the same basic constituents
which are discrete and atomistic All systems have the same basic processes which are
mechanical
The Epistemological Assumptions Knowledge of the parts of a system gives knowledge of the
whole system Experts and Specialists are the only legitimate knowledge
seekers and knowledge-justifiers
+The Politics of Reductionism Descartes in his Passions of the
Soul and The Description of the Human Body suggested that the body works like a machine.
René Descartes: “The Father of Modern Philosophy”
+The controlled experiment
A threefold exclusion in this methodology: Ontological in that other
properties are not taken note of Epistemological in that other
ways of perceiving and knowing are not recognized
Sociological in that the non-expert is deprived of the right both of access to knowledge and of judging the claims of knowledge.
+Profits, Reductionism and Violence
“Reductionism is related to the needs of a particular form of economic organization.”
“Every firm and sector measures its efficiency by the extent to which it maximizes its gains, regardless of the fact that in the process it also maximizes the social and ecological cost of the production process.”
Adam Smith’s idea that people are born Acquisitive and Aggressive. If you free people, they will always go for maximum wealth. People constantly seek pleasure.
+Reductionist Ecology: Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of Commons & Lifeboat Ethics
Commons: property for all…
Ok maybe not all, but for some.
+Eucalyptus Planting & Desertification Eucalyptus forests:
Attribute to the loss of soil moisture Diminish soil nutrients. Damages the allelomorphic capacity of
all other plants
The reductionist response: FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)
is planting eucalyptus in Ethiopia World Bank, SIDA, USAID have coaxed
India into putting farmlands under eucalyptus
People who for centuries have been planters and protectors of trees have suddenly been marginalized.
+Pesticides Pesticides:
Decrease plant resistance Increase pest attacks and the
need for even more pesticides Absorbed by plants and
animals in ever-increasing quantities
Indiscriminate killers; kills the natural enemies of pests
Carlitos, a child of farm workers, born with birth defects attributed to pesticides
Reductionist response: “The effect of not spraying
tropical crops would of course be disastrous, and the resulting famine would be the greatest disaster the world has ever know”. –D.G. Hessayan of the British Agrochemicals Association
+Drugs Modern Medicine
Reductionist science shifts the focus from the patient to the the disease
It applies solutions which result in violence on the patient
“Diseases brought on by doctors are a greater cause of increased mortality than traffic accident and war-related activities.” – Ivan Illich
Ex: Clioquinol
“Indigenous therapies are reduced to hocus-pocus and their practice as quackery.”
Homeopathic doctor in Khunti, India
+In conclusion:
Non-reductionalist alternatives are needed Non-violent science
which respects the integrity of nature and man and truth
Science = Liberation of the people
Vanda Shiva participates in the famous “Chipko” movement.