The macroethics of science in a time of crisis: Nobel Symposia, 1969‒1978

In the mid-1960s the Nobel Foundation initiated a series of Nobel Symposia that continue to this day. These concerned areas associated with the Nobel Prizes in the sciences, literature, peace, and soon also economics. In 1969 the first of four ‘cross-cultural’ symposia was organized. This paper focuses on the first three of these (1969, 1974, 1978) and comments on the fourth (1983). These symposia were non-technical and focused on what was often described as ‘world problems’ considered at the time to constitute a serious global crisis, which included, for example, environmental degradation, nuclear threats, overpopulation and a diminishing status of science. An important ambition of the symposia, which failed, was to produce authoritative syntheses concerning the role of science in grappling with the global crisis, a consideration that is here described as ‘macroethical’. In conclusion, the sometimes-turbulent symposia are discussed in relation to ideas about reflexive modernization and associated phenomena (neoliberalism, innovation policy), seen as symptoms of the crisis and the criticism of traditional modernization theory that it helped trigger.