Science and Technology

Abstract

It is essential for theories of participatory democracy to take into account technical expertise in order to develop a plausible vision of how direct democracy could develop within a modern society.1 Theories of participatory democracy need to embrace and incorporate technical and scientific expertise into their discussion of the democratic process in the absence of any universally agreed epistemological or moral standards. Science and technical expertise are important for the possibility of participatory democracy, providing that they are considered to be subordinate to intellectual conscience and democratic values, directed in accordance with the aspiration for everyone to be able to discover and realise the good life. As such, science and technology are important aspects of the recovery of the potentiality for the evolution of society into a rational, egalitarian, libertarian, and sustainable society, just as they are important aspects of the potentiality for the degeneration of society into irrational totalitarianism or barbarity. Everything is at stake, providing that the majority awaken from their conformist slumber to recover their freedom to cooperate to realise the potential for human enlightenment and emancipation.