4 HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE 



pean peoples, during the Middle Ages, science was obscured 

 by theological dogma and by the loss of most of the ancient 

 learning. During the Modern Period, which might be termed 

 the Scientific Period, science has become an organized 

 endeavor of overwhelming importance. It has entered its 

 growth-period and has become, with amazing rapidity, the 

 most influential factor in the thought and action of the 

 modern world. 



The dominant influence which science now exercises in 

 western culture is a natural outcome of the spectacular 

 changes wrought by science upon the environment of man. 

 Within less than two hundred years, man has succeeded in 

 controlling the conditions of his existence to an extent hith- 

 erto unthinkable. The material effects of this new power are 

 seen wherever ''the destroying hand of economic civiliza- 

 tion" does its work. It is this deplorable aspect of science 

 which has captured the popular imagination. But science 

 has gone deeper. Human thinking has been revolutionized 

 by scientific knowledge and method. It is this spiritual 

 aspect of modern science that is its most significant feature. 

 By comparison, the material aspect is insignificant. So 

 profound, so comprehensive, and so rapid have been the 

 transformations in human thought in modern times, that 

 even scientists have been forced often to change their point 

 of view over night. The end of the revolution, which has 

 thus been forced upon the world, is not yet apparent. Its 

 effects are spreading, its advance shows no signs of abate- 

 ment, its ultimate results are incalculable. Extensive as the 

 material transformations have been, thrilling as the conquest 

 of physical nature has been, they are surpassed in importance 

 by the changes in human thought. Modern thought is the 

 outcome of modern science. The scientific habit of mind is 

 the unpredictable factor in the life of mankind to-day. Its 

 possibilities for the future defy all estimate or prophecy. 



The spiritual revolution wrought by scientific thought 

 is illustrated in the changing concept of authority. Suffi- 



