DuBridge • The Inquiring Mind 



tions, always explored. But along about 

 1700 men began to do these things in 

 a new way. Men began to realize that 

 by making observations carefully and 

 analyzing them quantitatively, it could 

 be shown that nature behaved in a 

 regular manner and that these regu- 

 larities could be discovered, reduced 

 to mathematical form and used to pre- 

 dict future events. 



This was an astonishing discovery. 

 And as this new concept, outlined by 

 Francis Bacon, was pursued — first by 

 Galileo, then bv Newton, then manv 

 others— a new world of understanding 

 was opened to men's minds. Nature 

 was partly comprehensible, not wholly 

 mysterious and capricious. The falling 

 stone and the moving planets became 

 suddently not only understandable but 

 miraculously and simply related. Men 

 couldn't affect the motion of the 

 planets, but they could control the mo- 

 tion of the stone and of other objects. 



And so, machines were invented, the 

 concept of energy emerged, steam was 

 put to w^ork— and suddenly, after thou- 

 sands of years of doing work only with 

 the muscles of men and animals, men 

 found that a piece of burning wood or 

 coal could take the place of many 

 slaves or horses or oxen. 



From that time on, happiness and 

 leisure for all men became a possible 

 goal, not a crazy dream. 



A LIMITLESS QUEST 



But that was only the beginning. 

 The scientific method led from physics 

 to astronomy to chemistry to biology. 

 A beachhead on the shores of ignorance 

 became a vast area of knowledge and 

 understanding. Yet, as the frontiers of 

 knowledge advanced, the area of ig- 

 norance also seemed to enlarge. Nature 

 was not simple after all. A literal etern- 

 ity of new frontier was opened up. The 

 quest for understanding, we now see, 

 will, for finite man, be limitless. 



301 



I would like to direct your attention 

 to the conditions that are required for 

 knowledge and understanding to grow 

 and to spread. Intellectual advance- 

 ment does not come about automati- 

 callv and without attention. There have 

 been throughout human history only 

 a few places and a few periods in which 

 there have been great advances in 

 knowledge. Only under certain special 

 conditions does the inquiring mind de- 

 velop and function effectively. Can we 

 identify these conditions? Certainly we 

 must try. 



The first condition, of course, is that 

 at least a few people must recognize 

 the value of the inquiring mind. Here 

 we all take for granted that new ad- 

 vances in understanding come only 

 from the acts of creative thinking on 

 the part of individual human beings. 

 We know that, and we respect and 

 admire the men who have shown the 

 abilitv to think creativelv. But we 

 mustn't get the idea that our admira- 

 tion for original thought is shared by 

 all people. 



Even in this countn', the man who 

 thinks differentlv is more often de- 

 spised than admired. If he confines his 

 new thoughts to the realms of abstruse 

 theoretical physics or astronomy, he 

 may not be molested. For then he will 

 be speaking only to those who under- 

 stand him. But if he wanders into biol- 

 ogy or medicine, into psychology or 

 sociology or politics, then he should 

 beware. 



Now in recognizing the virtues of 

 thinking differently, w'e do not mean 

 that we must encourage the idiot, the 

 criminal or the traitor. Honest, truly 

 intellectual inquiry is perfectly easily 

 recognizable by those who have some 

 training in the field. But just here we 

 run into difficulty. Those who are in- 

 competent to judge may nevertheless 

 render judgment and pass sentence on 

 those with whom they disagree, or 

 whom they fear. 



