SCIENCE AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 289 



that he can, within limits, control his environment. Control 

 is secured through science. The immediate outcome of this 

 underlying concept is frequently disastrous to much in the 

 older cultures that might well be preserved. It appears that 

 no other type of organization can stand against the matter- 

 of-fact. Whether this practice can succeed remains to be 

 seen; but for the present it goes steadily forward. Science 

 acts as a dynamic factor in progress, on the one hand by 

 ameliorating the material conditions of human life, and on 

 the other, by continually destroying dogmas that restrain 

 the human spirit. Scientific knowledge induces not only 

 new worlds of a material sort, it also constructs new worlds 

 of social relationship as outgrowths of its material creations. 

 In addition, it opposes the formal and legalistic point of 

 view, and aligns itself with democracy. 



