The determinist discourse: How science moved away from humanism
November 21, 2018
Research Fellow, IDSA, Dr Adil Rasheed’s Op-Ed article on determinist discourse, titled ‘The determinist discourse: How science moved away from humanism’ was published in Al Arabiya website on November 21, 2018.
The article argued that science in the 20th century was quite popular among people around the world. It raised hope of progress for the common man, telling him or her that anything was possible, from space travel to a long and prosperous life. That dream has now come under a cloud, after science started getting associated in the popular perception as a preserve of big corporations and as a problem in itself as it has raised the specter of climate change, nuclear holocaust and mass unemployment (thanks to automation). Today, scientists believe in determinism, focusing more on the metaphysical than the freewill positivism of liberal humanism.
