Pure Science and the Idea of the Holy 



(An address delivered to the annual conference of the National 



Union of Students, 1 941) 



It is quite natural that when we stand at the beginning of a lifetime 

 of scientific practice, whether in teaching or in industrial or "pure" 

 research, we should feel how vital a problem is the relation between 

 applied science and pure science. The question, moreover, is always 

 arising, how pure should science be? What is meant by its "ethical 

 neutrality?" Is it right or wrong for scientists to concern themselves 

 with the social applications of their discoveries? A great deal has been 

 written and spoken concerning these things in recent years; all I can 

 contribute is an approach to the subject which differs somewhat from 

 the usual approaches because of its historical and, dare I say, theo- 

 logical method. 



Under enlightened editorship, the columns of "Nature," universally 

 acknowledged as the world's greatest scientific weekly journal, have 

 contained for many years past exchanges of views, sometimes put 

 sharply enough, on the social function of science. We cannot do 

 better than glance at two of these exchanges. 



Meddling with Morals and Politics. 



In 1933 the physiologist A. V. Hill discussed the general results 

 of the scientific method during the past three hundred years in 

 western Europe, commenting on the toleration which society as a 

 whole has exercised towards the labours of scientific workers.^ 

 Scientific expeditions have been regarded as immune from the hazards 

 of war. During the Napoleonic wars there were interchanges between 

 French and British scientists. Science has been recognised as the 

 common interest of mankind. "If scientific people," he went on, "are 

 to be accorded the privileges of immunity and tolerance by civilised 

 societies, they must observe the rules." These rules seemed to Hill 

 to be most clearly embodied in one of the early descriptions of the 

 aims of the newly-founded Royal Society, written in 1663, probably 

 by Robert Hooke. "The business and design of the Royal Society is — 



^ Nature, 1933, 132, 952. 

 ' 92 



