CHAPTER XI 



THE ROLE OF SCIENCE IN THE SOLUTION OF 

 SOCIAL PROBLEMS 



ACCEPTING the broad definition of science, as the product of 

 human rationality applied to the phenomena of nature, it is 

 possible to claim for science a larger place in the affairs of 

 men than could otherwise be maintained. What men call 

 civilized society with its material surroundings, its indus- 

 trial, political, and social institutions, its state of mind that 

 makes civilization a possibility, has arisen as the collective 

 product of human ideas acting upon the human and the 

 material environment. This vast complex is ultimately a 

 product of individual human minds reacting to their world 

 of persons and things. The first steps were, of course, 

 wholly unconscious. As civilization became established, 

 occasional thinkers began to understand the significance of 

 rationality in the control of environment. In later times, an 

 increasing number have apprehended human social organ- 

 ization as a process, in space and time, have sought to ascer- 

 tain the end toward which it has progressed, and have 

 considered the extent to which man can assume direction of 

 its progress in the future. As a result of the analyses made 

 by such philosopher-historians as Guizot, Buckle, Comte, 

 Carlyle, Spencer, Hegel, and others, it seems fair to say that 

 the end toward which civilization has blindly directed its 

 main effort is the elevation and expansion of the individual. 

 In the advancement of civilization through the action of 

 the human mind upon its environment, no one factor, such 

 as religion or science or hero-worship, can be regarded as all- 

 important. But in so far as it is definable as the rational 

 attack upon phenomena, science holds a unique position. 



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