INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY

Olden Lane
Princeton, New Jersey 08540

SCHOOL OF HISTORICAL STUDIES
Telephone (609) 734-8353
Professor G. W. Bowersock __ v FAX (609) 951-4462

March 21, 1995

 

Prof. Joshua Lederberg
President Emeritus

The Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue

New York, NY 10021-6399

Dear Professor Lederberg,

I am deeply in your debt for the splendid papers you have sent to me. I am so glad that I
asked for them. The issues you raise acquire an extraordinary clarity in the light of your
autobiographical remarks. I was particularly impressed by the recurring theme of religion and
science: the observation in your 1995 interview that the prestige of science may be diminished
precisely because "religious issues generally don't seem to count for very much right now"
would seem to suggest that the fortunes --for better or worse--- of religion and science are
inextricably linked together. From the other 1995 paper you sent me I note that you believe
science to have failed utterly as a counter-religion, which may leave the field open (I suppose) to
a resurgence of conservative religion such as we find in various fundamentalisms in the world
today. I now can see why you appeared reluctant at the Academy to pronounce either good or
bad the decline in the prestige of science.

Your marvelous paper of 1972 on the control of science in relation to the freedoms of
research remains powerful and timely. Prometheus and Hesiod are aptly introduced into this
discussion, and Hesiod's Works and Days are perhaps even more pertinent than the Theogony.
Near the beginning of the Works and Days, in introducing Prometheus' theft, Hesiod says, "The
gods kept hidden from men the means of life. Otherwise you would easily do enough work ina
day to supply you for a full year without work... But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid the means
of life because crafty Prometheus had deceived him." The gods are therefore responsible for our
difficulties in understanding and exploiting the world around us, but Hesiod believes that what
he calls the means of life (bios) are ultimately accessible, only hidden. This belief helps to
explain his doctrine of the two strifes (erides), the destructive strife and the productive one
(which we would probably call healthy competition).

I wish that I could offer you something as rich and thoughtful as you have given me, but
I take the liberty of reciprocating with a little memorial piece about Arnaldo Momigliano, whom
you may perhaps have known. I hope it is of some interest. With renewed gratitude,

Yours sincerely,