5 Might Scientific Ignorance Be Virtuous? The Case of Cognitive Differences Research

Scientific freedom has been called “the elixir of civilization” (Braben 2008), and scientists’ right to such freedom is recognized and protected worldwide.
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The United Nations (1966), for example, has directed states “to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity.” The European Union has acted similarly. According to Article 13 of its Charter of Fundamental Rights, “The arts and scientific research shall be free of constraint. Academic freedom shall be respected” (European Union 2000, 11). Other international documents also contain similar directives, such as the Declaration of the World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research, which states that the freedom of scientific research “is a basic civil and political right”—indeed, “is a dimension of freedom of thought and freedom of speech” that is a requirement of democracy (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 2006). The constitutions of many nations (such as Germany, Italy, Greece, and Spain) contain similar directives, while other nations (such as the United States and Canada) protect the freedom of scientific research in other ways (for instance, via the First Amendment of the US Constitution and Article 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) (Santosuosso, Fabio, and Sellaroli 2007; Santosuosso 2012). As a result, encroachments on scientific freedom are met with alarm; think not only of the recent protests responding to governmental restrictions on scientists’ freedom—the Death of Evidence demonstration in Canada in 2012, and March for Science demonstrations in the United States and elsewhere in 2017—but also the extensive, sometimes passionate literatures responding to the “commercialization” and “militarization” as well as “politicization” of science. “In a world where science policy is increasingly influenced by politics, economics, and religion,” said University of Alberta law professor Timothy Caulfield (2004, 125), “the concept of scientific freedom has never been more important.” But how much freedom do scientists really need—or deserve?