CULTURAL VALUES OF PHYSICS — DIETZ 151 



tific mind since Newton, perhaps as the greatest scientific mind of 

 all time. But they cannot understand that the scientist venerates the 

 great excursions which Einstein has made into the realm of 

 understanding. 



The pursuit of physics, therefore, is valuable in that it will incul- 

 cate this point of view in the student and give him a richer outlook 

 upon life. 



The eighth great cultural value of physics is its ability to instill 

 the spirit of courage in its students. In this respect physics is one 

 with the other sciences, for the scientist has never been bound by 

 ancient tradition. Copernicus dared to cast aside the Ptolemaic 

 theory though it had dominated man's thoughts for centuries. Vesa- 

 lius challenged the authority of Galen's anatomy even though it had 

 ruled since the time of the Romans. Scientists did not fear Newton's 

 "Principia" because it was new. They did not flee from Maxwell's 

 electromagnetic theory of light because it was revolutionary. 



Twentieth-century scientists have not rejected Planck and Ruther- 

 ford and Schrodinger and Einstein because their ideas were new. 

 On the contrary, they have rejoiced in each new discovery. This is 

 the courage which the world needs constantly, the spirit to forge 

 ahead, to discover new truths, and to face them when they have been 

 discovered. 



The ninth great cultural value of physics is that it instills the 

 spirit of tolerance. The physicist knows that there is no monopoly 

 upon truth. He sees the advance of science as a great cooperative 

 venture of all nations and peoples down through the years. The roll 

 of every science is an international one. Copernicus was a Pole; 

 Tycho, a Dane; Kepler, a German; Galileo, an Italian; Newton, an 

 Englishman. The story is the same today. The theory of Einstein 

 receives its chief verifications at the hands of English and American 

 scientist^!. 



The scientist is tolerant of other men's points of view. Realizing 

 how frequently he must change his own views in the face of new evi- 

 dence, he is never scornful of the other man's point of view. He 

 realizes how little mankind knows and how much is yet to be learned 

 and the realization makes him tolerant. 



The twentieth-century physicist is peculiarly aware of the danger 

 of jumping to dogmatic and sweeping conclusions on insufficient evi- 

 dence. He is cognizant of the mistake which the nineteenth-century 

 physicist made in concluding that the structure of physics had been 

 completed and that he was justified from that structure in believing 

 in a purely mechanistic universe. 



Today, the physicist is aware of the change in our thinking which 

 has been introduced by the Einstein theory of relativity and the 

 Heisenberg uncertainty principle. 



