Science: productive force or commodity

Abstract

The main thesis of the article is that the adoption of a critical stance towards science, as it is practiced in capitalism, requires that science be conceived not as a productive force, but as a commodity. The first conception has been the dominant one in the Marxist tradition; it has had a certain critical import, which however has vanished, being neutralized by a series of historical changes that culminate in the present neoliberal period. The demonstration of the second part of the thesis is based on a study about the process of commodification of science (as part of a larger process involving the commodification also of other intellectual goods, and of education), which promotes the fusion of science and technology, giving rise to technoscience, puts in the hands of the market the determination of the rhythm and the directions of research, and threatens even fundamental methodological principies of science.