科学家的职业化及其弊端——兼论爱因斯坦对职业科学家的体悟

On Professionalization of Scientists and Its Drawbacks——Einstein's Perception of Professional

简单地说,科学家是指从事科学研究的人,或者说只要是正在进行科学研究的人,都可以称为科学家。科学家的职业化,是指把原先作为一种社会角色的科学家,逐步演变为一部分人谋生的社会职业,从而使这些人成为职业科学家。爱因斯坦在自己的科学生涯中深刻地体会到,职业科学家存在着不得不写大量趋于浅薄的论文的压力。这种压力是职业科学家制度的弊端。在20世纪50年代以后,爱因斯坦所说的那种职业科学家制度的弊端,逐渐演化为严重的实验数据造假、论文抄袭和剽窃等舞弊行为。究其根本原因,一是人性的贪婪;二是职业科学家的生存危机。因此,遏制科研领域中舞弊行为的最有效的措施,一是对舞弊者进行严厉的惩罚;二是为科学家建立稳定的和优越的职业保障制度。

In brief,people engaged in scientific researches can be called scientists.Those who are conducting scientific researches can all be viewed as scientists.Professionalization of scientists means that the social role of scientists gradually evolves into a social career of making a living.As a result,those scientists become professionals.Einstein deeply recognized,based on his own research experiences,professional scientists were usually pressed to produce large numbers of shallow and superficial essays,which was the drawback of scientist professionalization.After 1950s,the drawback gradually evloved into such misconducts as severe test data falsification,essay plagiarism and academic piracy.They resulted from human greed and survival crisis of professional scientists.Therefore,the most effective measures to fight against misconducts in science involve not only severe punishment on those who behave improperly but also the establishment of a stable and advantageous protection system for scientists.