| Abstract: | As the international scientific community faces increasingly complex global problems, there is a growing need for closer cooperation between scientists. This can only be achieved if it is based on an understanding of the cultural elements involved in the scientific enterprise, which determine how scientists interpret and strive towards the future. This article describes a research project undertaken to investigate the nature of scientists' worldviews by surveying their images of the future. No single scientific worldview emerged, but rather a structured set of alternative views of the future, running along demographic, social and cultural lines. Such diversity may theoretically provide a healthy basis for scientific enterprise, but only if used creatively; otherwise it may hinder international, ] multidisciplinary collaboration. |
