Iluzje Wschodnioeuropejczyków: nauka

Abstract

The article considers the status of science in post-Soviet states, i.e. in the lands of Eastern Europe, which include the Baltic states, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldavia, and the countries of the whole Balkans. Irrespective of the fact whether the given country is a EU member, each one is plagued by the same maladies: lack of a long educational tradition, lack of science ethos, underinvestment, and pathologies of scholarly life originating from poverty. The author of the article shows Eastern Europe as region that is brisk in political terms, and heavily influenced by great geopolitics. Under such circumstances, the so-called reforms of higher education are often counter-productive, increasing chaos and subordinating science to politics.