THE PERILS OF WAR

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 105, 3 January 1940, Page 6

THE PERILS OF WAR

WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE? PROSTITUTED TO AMBITION "How is it that science, which teaches us so much, has failed to teach us how to conduct our affairs with sufficient rationality to avoid constant perils of war. How is H that science, itself by nature pacific antl international, has failed— in spite of its widespread influence on life at large—to check the emergence of fanatical nationalisms which are now proving a serious handicap to the progress of science itself? For nowadays we have not even to wait for war-time to see science prostituted to nationalist ambitions —so much so that many eminent scientists are exiles from their OAvn countries, while Germany seeks to cultivate a 'National Socialist science' which, deliberately eschewing internationalism, shall evolve Jaws of its own, mainly devoted to justifying the myths of Aryan racialism. All these are questions which have lately begun to cause scientists themselves increasing concern. Especially among the younger scientists there is an urgent preoccupation With social problems, and many of them are becoming active advocates of radical social reforms. Yet the answers to such questions seem to lie at a level deeper than social reform alone car. reach—deeper even, perhaps, than any ordinary ■ methods of scientific research can explore. For the root of the trouble is that science has equipped mankind with a prodigious array of new means while failing to set before him any equally satisfying new ends."—The Yorkshire Post.