Science and the ethics of transition
JAN 01, 1950
Caught between an inescapable and growing involvement in social issues of the day and a longstanding tradition of professional isolationism, scientists have come to realize that habits of objective analysis are a blunt tool for attacking problems of social origin. A philosopher of science, the author finds here an analogy between the questings of research and of a society in transition to suggest an ethical conception which has meaning in both. He writes that there is no turning back of the clock; that “science can no longer be free from society; but it can be free along with society.”
DOI: 10.1063/1.3066734
The lines of communication between science and its social uses have grown shorter and stronger than ever before. An increasing worldliness in science, accelerated and accentuated by the war, has not lapsed in the period following it, and the spirit of this worldliness, moreover, does not seem consistent with the old position of professional unconcern over general social issues.
This article is only available in PDF format
More about the authors
David Hawkins, University of Colorado, Boulder.
© 1950 American Institute of Physics
