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The Evolution of Scientific Knowledge edited by Hans Siggaard Jensen, Lykke Margot Richter and Morten Thanning Vendel酶, Edward Elgar, 拢45, ISBN 1843762358 Reviewed by Steve Fuller

HAD a book with this title been written by biologists, someone would have asked, 鈥淎re we genetically programmed to do science?鈥� But economists wrote The Evolution of Scientific Knowledge, and it emphasises science as a 鈥渟pontaneously generated order鈥� that requires no central planning. Its sense of evolution recalls more Darwin鈥檚 grandfather Erasmus than Charles himself. Indeed it reminds us that 鈥渢he invisible hand鈥� was originally put forward as a general theory of evolution, not simply of how markets work.

But these economists have aspirations that go beyond intellectual history 鈥� they want to explain the shape of modern science. For them science is a spontaneously generated order because its defining features are side effects and by-products of other things scientists try to do. Thus, they believe that scientific journals were not started because editors decided they would be an efficient way to communicate findings to researchers. Rather, journals emerged once researchers realised that corresponding with colleagues individually wasted time. The editor鈥檚 role is crucial but only as someone who satisfies an already existing need.

Such a view of science clearly appeals to the 鈥渓ess is more鈥� attitude to governance in these neo-liberal times. But it also captures a more basic intuition. If science refers to an independent reality, then it should be especially responsive when reality expresses its independence 鈥� namely, when it forces us to adapt to unforeseen circumstances.

Science has often displayed such a pattern. But these economists go one step further and suggest that this is necessarily the case: explicit design would always have been worse. The result is a 鈥減anglossian鈥� vision of science in which every historical contingency turns out to be optimal, for reasons the economist has yet to determine. Voltaire, creator of the ever-optimistic Dr Pangloss, would be amused.