SCIENCE IS NOT ENOUGH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 81, 29 December 1937, Page 6

SCIENCE IS NOT ENOUGH

Science is neutral. That is itcis beneficial or baleful according to the use man makes of his diseoveries, for science is nothing more than the discovery of physical laws. The scientist sets to work to find how the universe works; he is seeking truth. Truth itself is neutral. It cannot be twisted to serve any human caprice or to promote any cause. Truth impLacably pursues its own course. This the scientist knows. When he devises a new explosive or lethal gas he has done no more than discover the truth that certain compounds destroy human tissue. He leaves it to others to decide whether dark skins, semitic features, or any other human characteristies should be speeially selected for destruction. In other words he leaves it to society to learn the ultimate Truth, which some people call God^s Purpose. / Speaking as a guest of the Royal Society a few weeks ago, Sir John Simon paid tribute to the manner in which its members had used that "great instrument of knowledge, the most famous and most ancient institution of its kind in the world," from the very beginning with no idea that scientific discovery would be of.immediate practical utility, but in the conviction that the truth was worth finding out for its own sake. The Society embodied the great principle, he went on to emphasise, that it was by the intercliange * of scientific ideas between scientific men of all kinds that progress was achieved. "Progress," we may reflect, is another of tliose words which is in constant use but of which the definition is vague. What is spoken of as the progress of civilisation is accompanied by so much that is new and yet as bad as anything that went before it that many thinkers have seriously asked in what direction civilisation, which is supposed to be on the march, is progressing. The scientist, pursuing truth, possesses a philosophy that is not disturbed by transient world symptoms and happenings. He thinks in ages, not in generations and centuries. Scientists in pursuing the truth, declared Sir John Simon, are really contributing one of the things which are capable of binding togetlier the nations. His use of the word "c&pable" will be noted. Again he used it in saying that the work of the Royal Society was "capable of spreading peace among the nations of the world." The natural reflection will be that it is unfortunate that the bond which links scientists of all nations together in the pursuit of knowledge does not exert a more appreciable influence in the promotion of international harmony. Sir William Bragg, in a speech acknowledging Sir John Simon 's tribute to the Royal Society, observed that it was not knowledge in itself but the pursuit of knowledge in common that brought peaee. Many things, he pointed out, such as meteorology, health and hygiene, the development of transport, standards and tests without which trade could not he carried on, must he treated by the nations acting together, and in this coin- • mon ptirsuit of knowledge he predicted "they would see breaks" in tlie clouds tliat now hung over the world." It is a tragic commentary on man's pursuit of the Ultimate Truth that, in spite of the advance of knowledge and the triumplis of science, the very existence of civilisation is almost in the balance, and from responsible quarters we hear such statements as "the world is a cauldron of poison gas," "fear stalks the earth,"' "the world in the past six years has rattled back to barbarism at breakneck speed." While in the pursuit of knowledge Russian scientists go drifting dangerously on an ice floe in the Polftr regions, wars are^aging in Asia and Europe, and the propaganda disseminated against Great Britain by a Power which exalts militarism is being gravely discussed in the House of Commons. In order that she may be strong to maintain peace Britain is spending cnormous sums on rearmament. Within the last few days one journal has proclaimed triumphantly that she has secured the deadliest ground weapon ever devised in the shape of a tank which the War Ministry's researcHes have perfected. The strain of modern life is admitted. It has been attributed in part to the "increasing sense of international insecurity." Man might appear to have become as much the victim as the benefieiary of his own inventions. If the advancement of science should be producing progressively more problems for society than it is solving the outlook is rather unsatisfactory.