Benjamin Franklin, Civic Scientist

Guinnessy writes "Neal Lane, the ex-science advisor to President Clinton, has written an article in Physics Today magazine, that explains why he thinks Benjamin Franklin, was an early American prototype of a civic scientist, i.e. someone who would 'probably address many of today's concerns with wisdom, practicality, and a deep sense of civic responsibility.' Ironically the same issue has an example of a modern day civic scientist, a profile of Richard Meserve, a physicist who became a lawyer. Interesting stuff."

Comments

Re:You're thinking of Jefferson

[stratjakt]

Oh yeah, the other great american civic scientist and founding father, and favorite fodder for out-of-context quotes about democracy.

I get them all mixed up.

Have you ever noticed?

[rufusdufus]

Have you ever noticed that people who write about "science" in the abstract never seem to have a clue about what science is? Read this piece of humanities trash. Nothing about observation, theory or methodology. Lots about politics and education.

It almost comes off as a political mad-lib where the key words included "science" and "franklin" and "civic".