SCIENCE AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 269 



Upon these foundations it has been possible to raise a 

 growing edifice of aspiration. 



It therefore appears: that scientific knowledge is the 

 means to control of the physical environment; that proper 

 physical environment is prerequisite to a proper social en- 

 vironment among men ; and that the level of any society is an 

 immediate function of the material, and hence the social, 

 conditions that exist. In a savage society, living without 

 safe and permanent means of subsistence, the higher forms 

 of relationship between individuals are non-existent. Aspi- 

 ration cannot exceed the cultural level. In a modern com- 

 munity, where decent material conditions are denied to any 

 large class of the population, and where, as a result, social 

 conditions are at their worst, it is idle to expect a flowering 

 of the nobler aspirations. If these aspirations are thus 

 related to material conditions, which are dependent upon 

 scientific knowledge, the basic importance of science in the 

 solution of social problems must be acknowledged. 



FUNCTION OF SCIENCE IN SOCIAL PROGRESS 



But important as its material applications may appear, a 

 deeper social significance lies in the influence of science upon 

 the outlook of the individual mind. The manifold inter- 

 actions between the members of a modern community are 

 dependent upon science for their successful outcome, al- 

 though here the relationship is less direct and the com- 

 plexity of phenomena, which involve men as well as things, 

 is such that the applications of science are less easily recog- 

 nizable. The influence of science in this connection lies in 

 the fact that scientific thinking produces a state of mind 

 which makes for that expansion and extension of the individual 

 which appears to be the goal of civilized society. 



Society suffers, because its members are so largely in- 

 fluenced by their emotions. Mankind will doubtless con- 

 tinue to be guided by the heart rather than the head, but it is 



