Service model of science, or to the question of changing the status of science in society

Transformation of society to the post-industrial stage of development and the formation of a consumer society has significantly changed the status of science, which is reflected in the culture of postmodernism. The pre-existing status of science in the modern culture was based on its role as a basic epistemological subject producing true knowledge. The new status of science follows from the role of science in the service sector and the understanding of science as one of the subjects of this sphere, which was enshrined in the concept of «service science». The emegence of service science is due to a number of reasons: the increasing high cost of scientific research and the limited sources of state funding, the transfer of a number of scientific organizations to self-financing, etc. The phenomenon of service science has become a reality. Modern philosophy of science and, in particular, social epistemology, which focuses on both the advantages of service science and its negative features, is engaged in its comprehension. On the one hand, service science accelerates the development of scientific knowledge, redistributes functions between scientific organizations in order to speed up calculations, reduce costs, etc. On the other hand, the transformation to service science has led to a decline in the authority of science as an independent social institution, a decrease in its importance as a public domain, and the relationship «customer/consumer of services-service provider» is now dominant in the field of scientific activity, which makes science dependent on the customer (in particular, in the choice of research topics, etc.). This is dangerous in the sense that research and development begins to focus on the immediate demand, which, in the end, hides the desire of the customer to get a big profit here and now. At the same time, service science is, although predominant, but still only a part of modern science. However, the further development of science implies an increasing immersion in the service sector, which is already evident in the development of technoscience.