DISCUSSION 
years, but there is surely something to be learned from the 
previous five hundred million or so. There seems to be some 
principle of change inherent in the system which we do not yet 
understand, and which I feel sure has great lessons for us. 
Huxley: I agree that the roots of human valuation are in 
our animal ancestry, and we have always to relate our thoughts 
on ethical and other values to the studies of the ethologists, who 
are doing remarkable pioneer work on behaviour. 
Comfort: I would like to take up what Bronowski said. Not 
only has science given us a completely new valuation of integ- 
rity, but it seems to me the important difference from past 
hypotheses is that science makes it to some extent self-validating. 
If you are going to adopt the attitude that for ideological 
reasons you will have none of Mendelian genetics, or you will 
have none of Einsteinian physics, then as a consequence you 
will not have beef or you will not have radio sets, in proportion 
to the degree that your opinions are irrational. Surely, the 
fundamental difference from past attempts to value reality in 
philosophical or religious terms is that now you are subject to 
this crude empirical test of performance. It gives me the hope 
that in future we shall have less irrationality merely on the 
grounds that irrationality does not in fact work. 
Hoagland: Anatol Rapoport has pointed out that while 
science has its own myths, as do all systems of thought, science 
can survive the smashing of its myths repeatedly and indeed 
gains strength from this very process. Hypotheses are destroyed 
by experiments and new ones are built up and confirmed or 
overthrown. Moreover, the people who destroy the myths of 
science are respected and even given Nobel prizes. They are 
not persecuted as heretics as they are under authoritarian 
systems of thought. 
Szent-Gyérgyt: I think Lord Brain’s remark about planning 
in science is a most important point, because progress can be 
harmful if it is not planned. For instance, we have introduced 
death control without birth control, and even feeding the 
hungry can turn out to be wrong. I fed the chickadees in my 
garden last year because they were hungry and now I have 
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