SCIENCE SHAPING AMERICAN CULTURE ^ 



By AfiTHtTB H. COMPTON 



Professor of Physics, University of Chicago 



In no other part of the world and at no previous time in history 

 has life been so greatly influenced by science as in the United States 

 today. This influence extends not only to the supplying of the means 

 of living, but likewise to our thought, our amusements, our art, and 

 our religion. 



American civilization is based upon science and technology. That 

 civilization includes great cities, which need for their very existence 

 mechanical transportation, steel rails and girders, electric elevators, 

 refrigeration systems to preserve food, careful control of sanitation, 

 and means of preventing the spread of communicable disease. It 

 embraces great areas of thinly populated but highly productive farm 

 land. Here farmers live relatively complete lives, and supply the 

 nation with an unparalleled abundance and variety of food, because 

 of the agricultural knowledge and tools and convenient communica- 

 tion and transportation that science has supplied. With the help 

 of science, labor and capital are efficient, the Government coordinates 

 the activities of a widely spread people, and our continent has become 

 a national community. 



American thinking is strongly influenced by science. Whereas at 

 Oxford it remains doubtful whether science has yet earned a true 

 place in education, at Chicago three of the four main divisions of 

 the university are called sciences. Of the older learned professions, 

 the minister needs to pay close attention to science if he would retain 

 the respect of his congregation ; the lawyer who would deal with pat- 

 ents, or corporations, or even crime must acquaint himself with the 

 rudiments of science, and, as for the doctor, the more science the 

 better. Most of the newer professions, such as engineering and archi- 

 tecture, are based upon science. A survey of current literature can 

 leave no doubt but that in American society most of our creative 

 thinking is in the field of science. 



1 Read April 19, 1940, Symposium on Characteristics of American Culture and Its Place 

 In General Culture. Reprinted by permission from Proceedings of the American Philosophi- 

 cal Society, vol. 83, No. 4, September 1940. 



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