ABSTRACT
One of the most intrinsic and pervasive moral conflicts – universalism vs. parochialism – is intimately bound up with the ascent of science and the rise of the nation-state, two historical phenomena that have shaped the modern and contemporary world as potently as the expansion of capitalism. Advances in science and medicine are often propounded on the basis of a universalist presupposition that they will serve the well-being of humankind. Too often it has been said that science and medicine have no national boundaries – because scientific truth advances beyond artificial geographical divisions and because diseases, bacteria and viruses do not respect the borders of nation-states. At the same time, the emergence of the nation-state and the development of nationalism may be seen as modern forms of an age-old tribalism. While nationalist sentiment has often stimulated the advance and positive social application of scientific and medical knowledge, nationalism can also turn science and medicine, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, into the handmaiden of the nation-state, including its expansionist (internationally) and suppressive (domestically) aims.
