13 



Science and Morals 



The relationship between science and moral or 

 ethical values has a character somewhat different from 

 the relationship between science and art and is even less 

 well understood. Until very recently it was fashionable 

 to maintain that science has nothing to do with deciding 

 whether something is good or bad. Science is only con- 

 cerned with what is, so ran the argument, not with what 

 ought to be. Nonscientists supported this view because 

 it helped them keep control of the really important things 

 of Hfe and because they feared the growing power of 

 science and wanted to keep it in its place. Scientists sup- 

 ported the view partly because they were, in fact, more 

 interested in things as they are and didn't want to get in- 

 volved in the difficult business of deciding how they ought 

 to be, partly because they wanted to be polite, and partly 

 because it is very difficult to see how the scientific method 

 can be used to decide moral and ethical questions. 



We are still very much in the dark in regard to the latter 

 point, but we are beginning to see that neither the scientist 

 nor nonscientist can ignore the relationship between science 

 and morals. Three points about this relationship are par- 

 ticularly clear. In the first place, science has greatly eroded 

 the authority and prestige of the traditional custodians of 

 moral values; secondly, science has enormously increased 



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