Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORYtherefore may point out the following, which partially derives logicallyfrom what has been presented up to now:It is the right and the duty of the scientist to make the results of hisresearch available to:1. the scientific community;2. society at large.This obligation arises in turn from the obligation– to expose the work to critique;– to assume accountability for one’s activities;– to inform society at large about new discoveries.This right includes publicationa) of the scientific work itself;b) of fact-oriented popularized presentation of the same for the informationof non-scientists and students;c) of fact-oriented promotion for a) and b) above in order to announceand disseminate.Considered formally, publications under b) and c) above are not, oronly under certain conditions, scientific in nature, but they are still pivotalfor science. If the right of publication is restricted, then does notonly the indispensable communication among scientists and betweenscientists and society collapse, but science itself comes to a standstill.This also has drastic disadvantageous effects for our modern societybased on the division of labor, which depends on science and on communicatingwith it.I mention this here also because I am standing before this Court notonly because of the scientific works I have written, published or distributed,but also because of advertising brochures and flyers with which Ihave advertized my products. I would never claim that such materialmeets the standards of scientific writings. They cannot and they shouldnot do that. But as I explained above, they must still enjoy the protectionof freedom of science, because they serve science, for without publicannouncement of their existence and results, science cannot continueto exist.After all, science thrives primarily by public critical discussion, andit dies, if that discussion is forbidden. In this sense I will now concludemy presentations on science and its nature by once more quoting KarlPopper: 123123 Karl Popper, Objective Knowledge, op. cit. (note 67), p. 22.96