Conclusions

Taking as a starting point the philosophy of science, Evandro Agazzi questions the role of science in the whole of human life. Through this question he supersedes the limits of classical philosophy of science, triggering a reflection that ends up in the realm of practical reason, of history and culture.

So he singles out one of the fundamental knots of Modernity: the demand for autonomy. Science was one of the first human activities, in the wake of Modernity, to demand autonomy for itself. In a complementary sense, we should say that the autonomy of science has been one of the major factors contributing to the development of Modernity. The search for autonomy, as Agazzi suggests, has put in the hands of humanity positive and important results, but it has also led to some excesses. As a consequence of such excesses, at the decline of Modernity, a certain cultural uneasiness and a strong request for new balances and connections became manifest. Agazzi so proposes to activate the systemic approach to obtain such new balances. This approach enables us to point out the reasons that science has for respecting other fields, traditions, practices and values, especially those of ethical nature. Such reasons are not specifically of moral nature, but more appropriately systemic. In this way science will fulfil at best its own constitutive goals, autonomy in the first place, but at the same time it will also respect and pay due consideration to other equally autonomous fields, like the ethical one. Finally, we must also clarify that the systemic approach proposed by Agazzi does not eliminate human freedom or, much less, practical rationality; on the contrary, it reinforces and makes them possible.

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Source: Alai M., Buzzoni M., Tarozzi G. (eds.). Science Between Truth and Ethical Responsibility: Evandro Agazzi in the Contemporary Scientific and Philosophical Debate. Springer,2015. — 337 pp.. 2015

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