MAN AND THE MORAL ASPECTS OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
p Contemporary science is becoming an organic part of the life of mankind. By accelerating all societal processes it is forcing people to give more thought to the question of their future in terms of the relationship between the personal and the social.
p I find it impossible to refrain from relating a conversation concerning people and science which I became engaged in with a casual acquaintance made during a trip—an ordinary working fellow. Among other things ne said:
p “You can’t escape from science today any more than you can from fate. It’s gotten involved with everything. If you ask me, an ordinary fellow off the street, what I think of science I’ve got a three word answer: respect, hope, fear. You understand... I’m afraid because I want to keep on living and I feel sorry for people. Now it can be done so scientifically ... one big blast and curtains. To make it worse, you get the feeling that science could make people redundant; it seems to me that we won’t have to worry so much about where we’re all going to live so much as what we’ll have to do with our time. People won’t feel they’re needed for anything. And then you also tnink, would it really be rosy to live in a scientifically-run society ... that is, it everything were scientific. Do you think people would feel respect when they looked each other in the eye.... I’d feel sort of naked, I tell you”.
It occurred to me then: the time has surely come to an end when one could take up science and pay no attention to the question of the social effects following upon scientific research. I have in mind not only those consequences wrought by 51 technology, biology, medicine and other natural science disciplines, but also those connected with the evolution of human psychology and with the general moral aspects of society.
Notes