GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



It is sometimes said that science is an enemy of society. When through the 

 utiHzation of some scientific principle it becomes possible to make something 

 by means of machinery instead of by human hands and then control the 

 machines by means of other mechanical devices, workmen lose their jobs. 

 And when improvements in methods occur simultaneously in many fields, 

 technological unemployment may become an important social problem. Does 

 this result suggest that machines should not be made, that science should not 

 be applied? No, continuing advances in new directions open many new jobs 

 to replace the ones taken over by machines. The slaughter of man in automo- 

 bile traffic is one of the more appalling aspects of modern life. Would you be 

 willing to argue that automobiles should never have been built? Advances in 

 the chemistry of cellulose, a compound present in plants and abundantly 

 available for use, have made possible the manufacture of artificial textiles 

 and dozens of articles in daily use, as well as the development of high explo- 

 sives. Because men have used these explosives to blow one another to bits, 

 would you say that the chemistry of cellulose should never have been studied? 

 Your generation will see either the solution of the problem of controlling the 

 energy which scientists have released by techniques of atomic fission and 

 fusion, or the end of civilization as your parents knew it. Does anyone argue, 

 in his fear of disaster from the unscrupulous use of atom and hydrogen bombs, 

 that scientists should not have tried to unlock these storehouses of energy 

 which can be applied with almost unlimited benefits to mankind? No, science 

 is not an enemy of society except as man perverts its contributions. And there 

 are perversions less conspicuous than those mentioned but none the less 

 dangerous. In much advertising we find a completely unwarranted use of 

 "science says" or "science shows" to lend support to fantastic statements. 

 The thoughtful person will ponder these matters. 



If, as we have said, science is the slave of truth, and if objectively verifiable 

 fact is the currency of science, it is obvious that science and its distinctive 

 methods cannot operate except on a basis of fact. Human experience encom- 

 passes, of course, areas in which beliefs can only be based upon faith, and such 

 beliefs cannot, by their nature, be subjected to rigorous scientific verification. 

 Human knowledge, then, is founded partly on fact and partly on faith, but it 

 has a fundamental unity which has tended to become obscured through the 

 ages of human experience. The Greek philosophers were, literally, lovers of 

 wisdom, and their thoughtful discussions ranged through man's physical, 

 social, and spiritual problems. The dissipation of this unity has resulted 

 partly from the vast increase in knowledge which has come about because 

 of the insatiable thirst of some men for detailed information about a seemingly 

 endless number of facets of their environment. But poets, artists, scholars in 

 all fields, and even spiritual leaders have contributed to this loss of unity, 

 along with the scientists. Today, higher education is intended to help pre- 

 pare each student to resynthesize for himself a total awareness of man in his 

 relation to the universe — a unity of understanding blended of fact and faith 

 that has been lost through the centuries. 



