Naivety in the molecular life sciences

In the 20th century, molecular life sciences have become a major arena of scientific and technological innovation. The rate of progress, especially within gene technology, clearly indicates that molecular life sciences will give rise to new (technological) opportunities and (environmental and human) problems in the future. The main claim of this paper is that certain problems arising from the use of life science technology are connected to the epistemological problems of life science knowledge, and in particular the problem of justifying biological relevance of in vitro experimental evidence. Thus, epistemological naivety leads to political naivety with regard to the possible consequences of introducing new technology, for instance by believing that in vivo uncertainty based on in vitro evidence can be properly managed by traditional risk assessment. In this situation, there is a need for post-normal perspectives to improve the understanding of the uncertainties and quality of molecular life science knowledge claims. Discussing a handful of cases, the paper aims at epistemological disillusion with respect to the molecular life sciences. Such a disillusion among scientists and lay people may be a necessary condition for the eventual management of the consequences of this part of science. Copyright 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.