SCIENCE, RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 



the rules." "Not meddling with morals or politics; such, I would 

 urge," he went on, "is the normal condition of tolerance and im- 

 munity for scientific pursuits in a civilised state." Nothing would be 

 worse than that science should become involved with emotion, 

 propaganda, or particular social and economic theories. In other 

 words — "My kingdom is not of this world," must be taken as meaning 

 not in this world either. Let unemployment, repression, class justice, 

 national and imperial wars, poverty in the midst of plenty, etc., etc., 

 continue and increase; nothing is relevant to the scientific worker, 

 provided only his immunity is granted — immunity to pursue his 

 abstract investigations in peace and quiet. Here we substitute for the 

 kingdom-concept of mysticism a kingdom-concept of mathem.atics, 

 equally sterile with respect to human welfare, equally satisfactory to 

 the powers of this world. 



"The best intellects and characters, not the worst," continued Hill, 

 "are wanted for the moral teachers and political governors of mankind, 

 but science should remain aloof and detached, not from any sense of 

 superiority, not from any indifference to the common welfare, but as 

 a condition of complete intellectual honesty." Haldane was not slow 

 to point out that Hill's sterilisation of the scientific worker as a social 

 unit arose from the facile ascription to him of no loyalties save those 

 of his work. In so far as he is a citizen as well as a scientist, he must 

 meddle with morals and politics. But Hill's point of view cart be 

 attacked more severely from a deeper standpoint. Science does not 

 exist in a vacuum; scientific discoveries are not made by an inex- 

 plicable succession of demiurges sent to us by Heaven; science is, de 

 facto, involved with "particular social and economic theories," since 

 it exists and has grown up in a particular social and economic structure. 

 Here there is no space even to outline the marks which theoretical 

 and applied science bears revealing its historical position. I merely 

 wish to point out that it is not altogether surprising that the ordinary 

 man expects some lead from the scientific worker in his capacity of 

 citizen. In the Middle Ages, life was ruled by theology, hence 

 the socio-political influence of the theologian; today it is ruled 

 by science, hence the socio-political importance of the scientific 

 worker. 



The Treason of the Scholars. 



Hill's conception of the Kingdom as a realm of truth and exact 

 knowledge far removed from the affairs of human life has been most 



45 



