Scienza, verità e crisi ecologica. Una pista di ricerca

Scientific truth has taken on an increasingly significant role in securing the conditions for capitalist extraction of value. The eruption of the ecological crisis has challenged this capacity, catalysing a transformative drive already underway. Of this transformation the article reconstructs the genesis and discusses the essential aspects: from the linear model of the science/society relationship to the prevalence of use-oriented research; from the limits to growth to the growth of limits; from an archetypal truth regime to a prototypical truth regime. The current phase is characterized by further changes: the internalization of limits, the use of uncertainty as an asset and a regime of «augmented» or optimized truth. The governmental scope of these changes can hardly be overestimated. It is doubtful whether in this way capitalism will be actually able to relaunch the accumulation process once more, or is instead leading to ecological disasters of unprecedented proportions. If the anticipation of completeness and certainty of knowledge has long dominated the search for truth, and if incompleteness and uncertainty are now increasingly seen as something to be ridden in an eternal present of conquest and accumulation, past and especially ongoing experiences indicate that it is possible, and likely necessary, to rely on the anticipation of incompleteness and uncertainty as a regulative ideal for research and policy decisions.