274 THE PRESENT IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE 



use more of their wits. The true ideal of education is a 

 leading out, as the derivation of the term implies, and 

 this is in line with the ideal of science, which is the discovery 

 of new truth. 



Science causes social progress by its incessant erosion of 

 the traditional ideas that tend to keep society within the 

 established bounds. Science is thus a dynamic factor. This 

 does not mean that great civilizations are impossible, without 

 organized science in the modern sense, but that society 

 advances only in so far as it is influenced by the spirit 

 characteristic of science. Ancient Egypt possessed a high 

 civilization, founded, as we have seen, upon scientific 

 knowledge in the arts. But the Egyptian and also the 

 Mesopotamian civilizations possessed little beyond the pomp 

 and panoply of social organization, because their culture was 

 not an expression of the progressive spirit expressed in terms 

 of collective organization. Greece, alone among the ancient 

 nations, kindled the undying fire. The scientific factor in 

 western society first arose in Hellas. Some of the far-eastern 

 civilizations of modern times seem to represent a frame of 

 mind, essentially like that of earlier cultures. They are not 

 likely to be shaken from their lethargy so long as the spirit 

 of conservatism prevails. India, for example, is not likely to 

 be profoundly changed by the preaching of any new religious 

 philosophy, for India is surfeited with religious philosophies, 

 but by the development of a willingness to break with tra- 

 dition. The history of Japan within the last half century 

 shows what can happen when the spirit of change strikes 

 home. 4 



The claim that the progressive attitude of science furnishes 

 a dynamic factor in social progress thus rests upon the fact 

 that the scientific state of mind is the one that readily breaks 

 with tradition. Science is a persistently radical factor in 



4 We do not imply that the immediate outcome in Japan or elsewhere is 

 other than deplorable. But the results that can be attained where there 

 exists the will to break with tradition must be acknowledged. 



