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PDFMichael Brooks published on April 20, 2012 a blog post in the “New Statesman”, an English political affairs magazine, on the attitude of the French intellectuals toward science. Michael Brooks is a quite famous british rationalist and science writer with a PhD in Quantum Physics from the University of Sussex.
For Michael Brook, French intellectuals know nothing about science and France has always struggled with evidence-based science. He argues that “being autistic, or the parents of autistic children in France is an appalling experience” and “the autism issue seems to be symptomatic of France’s difficult relationship with evidence-based science”. He details how France is a victim of the “knowledge-ignorance paradox”, a theory coined by LSE researcher Martin Bauer. According to this theory “support within a population for science is inversely proportional to the strength of that country’s scientific research”. Michael Brooks observes that upport is strong for scientific initiatives in France while the proportion of nobel prizes is minimal. He then concludes with the vision of Nicolas Sarkozy. “France, he says, has to follow. When it comes to science, vive la difference is no longer an option”.
Surprisingly, investment in research and science or even the autism scandal haven’t played
Read the “New Statesman” article: Why do French intellectuals “know nothing about science”?
