What is the real value of science?

Abstract

Today the opinion is widely held that science and technology are very closely linked to each other, and that the value of the former depends on the implications it may have for the latter. This opinion is a grave mistake, which ignores the genuine nature of science, both historically and epistemologically, a mistake that can lead to a gross impoverishment of the scientific spirit and human culture in general. In this essay, I intend to analyze the sources of the error in question and put an appropriate perspective on it to understand what is, and what should be guided by, the genuine scientific spirit