Pablo Picasso (left) and
Linus Pauling, the one
. an artist, the other a
. Scientist, work with dif-
ferent materials and ex-
press themselves in dif-
ferent ways. But their
similarities are more.
essential than their dif-
ferences: they are both
humanists,

story by
marvin bank

 

science and humanism—friends or foes?
* the picture, or rather caricature, of the United
ftates.in some parts of the world is that of an om-
niscient giant carrying an atom bomb in one hand
and a bottle of Coca-Cola in the other,

' But that picture is much oversimplified and very
limited in scope. If we take Coca-Cola and the bomb
to be symbols of the useless and destructive prod.
“ucts. of a technological, inhumane civilization, we
can understand that the image of the United States
‘among certain groups of people is not a pleasant
one. Among these people are some American in-
tellectuals who decry the effect of science and
technology and who would like to return to a pre-
industrial civilization where the noble savage was
happy and healthy in his unpolluted wilderness.
This is impossible; we cannot turn back the clock.
‘And most of us would probably not wish to give
wp all.the advantages of modern science,

fh However, there is -a completely different picture
‘of the United States, one which I think is more
‘essential. Science, and often technology, are humane
‘and humanistic endeavors and it is necessary to em-
phasize that the gap between science and humanism
-there is not as wide nor as deep as many critics
-of our society suppose. It is my belief that science
‘aids not only the citizens of the U.S. but also the
eitizens of the world.

- Historically speaking, many American humanists
-fhave seen the importance of science and technology.
‘Walt Whitman wrote in praise of the locomotive.
ifEmerson, the essayist and philosopher, said that a
ibteamship sailing between America and Europe
wnight be as beautiful as a star. Thoreau compared
the sounds of a telegraph wire to the wind in the
ypine needles, These were discoveries that added new
‘and significant elements to our culture and the
humanists absorbed them as a part of life as a whole.

Albert Einstein, German-born American citizen,
always worked for what he felt was the good of
maankind, Leo Szilard, Hungarian-born American,
Nobel prize winner, and great scientist, was in the
forefront of the humane activities for peace, and
devoted. the last years of his life to such activities.

® Isidor Isaac Rabi, Nobel prize winner in physics
in 1944, is a professor at Columbia University,
where a new kind of professorship has been set
up. Those appointed may work in whatever field
they consider most fruitful, cutting across depart-
wacntal barriers, Professor Rabi wants te bring

acience and other cultural activities closer together,
aiding them to interpenetrate one another and en-
rich both, He would like to teach science humanist-
ically in relation to society, philosophy, and religion.
He wants to emphasize the humaneness of Scientists.

Another outstanding American scientist, Linus
Pauling, twice Nobel prize winner, once in chemistry
in 1954 and again in peace in 1962, whose activities,
perhaps unappreciated by some of his fellow citizens,
have always been human.

He has always been in favor of increasing the ben-
efits of science to mankind, and protecting them
from the evil effects of technology. Creative minds
both in science and the humanities in the U.S. have
always understood the humane values of science.

There are many aspects of American life in which
science and technology merge with the arts. The

’ architect Sullivan designed the first structural steel

office building in St. Louis, Missouri, which is
considered a blend of art and engineering. Architect
Buckminster Fuller developed the geodesic dome,
in which beauty and function merge: The design of
functional household utensils according to artistic
norms is an important American technological at-
titude. And few people would deny the smooth
beauty of aircraft designed in the States. The
physical environment in the U. S. has been slowly
changed by scientific and technological developments,
a now art and humanism are having their in-
uence,

The United States has large scientific institutions
which are devoted not only to research, but also
to contemplative scientific thought. The Saik Insti-
tute invites welk-known ‘scientists to devofe them-
selves to any activity they wish and especially to
contemplate the effects of science ou our environ-
ment, The Princeton Center for Advanced Studies
is a protected and quiet place for all intellectuals
to do research and to ponder the problems of the
world, away from the pressures of modern life.

Both scientist and artist have expressed the same
values. Guerica, Picasso’s terror-riddea canvas of

the Nazi bombardment of a helpless Spanish city,
and Linus Pauling’s mathematically accurale the
description of the effects of a nuclear war, both
express the horror of war. The clergymen who in-
veigh against smoking and the scientists who pre-

‘sent facts and figures on tha ewil effects of tobacco

are saying the same thing.

the news, mexico, d. f, - week of june 26, 1966 -

y

Science and humanism have much in common
in other ways. In both science and the humanities,
discoveries are made by intuition, by imagination,
by a creative urge. Copernicus’ revolutionary idea
that the sun was the center of our solar system was
intuitive, imaginative, creative. It was based on a feel.
ing for simplicity and beauty. Both the sciences and
the humanities often depend on an objective ati
ude; both deal with verifiable information.

The behavioural sciences study human activities
in a scientific manner. It is no coincidence that so-
ciology, political science, history, anthropology, and
other disciplines have progressed. so far in the States.
There and in other parts of the industrialized world
the methods of science and the attitudes of human:
ism have converged.

Science, as British scientist Jacob Bronowski
insists, is based on the habit of truth. This is a
humanistic concept; it is the basis of liberty and
democracy and the rights of man. When it is broken
or ignored, society becomes corrupt and tyrannical,
So in a sense the scientific attitude is a guarantee
of human rights. |

Peter Abelard, a revolutionary in the Catholie
Church, said, anticipating the Renaissance, “By
doubting we are led to inquire and by inquiry we
perceive the truth.” .

Einstein searched for this truth in physical laws,
while the religious philosopher Teithard de Chardin
finds it in divine origin. Both men seek the same
truth — but they reach it by different paths, And
it is truth that holds a society together.

_The habit of truth makes for independence and
originality, two much-admired human qualities, and
one often not so admired, but still profoundly hu-
man, dissent, Dissent is a supreme quality of the
scientist and of the poet, and it is an important
quality for any man.

Science, then, depends for ifs success not on
rigid rules of technique nor on absolute methods
of induction and deduction, but on the long admir-
ed qualities of human conduct—teuth, independ-
ence, originality, dissent, freedom. tolerance, respect,
and democracy. Actually. the scientific spirit has
created the most humane values of which we know,
The spirit of science is the spirit of modern. athical
democracy. And the value of science is not only in
its technique, but more important, in its spirit. —

7