52 Research and National Purpose 



that it is on the road toward developing modern industrializa- 

 tion under conditions that guarantee a continually rising stand- 

 ard of living. 



The European peoples, who invented modern science and 

 were the first to benefit from its fruits, find it very difficult to 

 overcome roadblocks associated with the outmoded form of 

 selfseeking nationalism which they developed over six or more 

 centuries, even though it should now be evident to all reason- 

 able people that far more can be gained through close coof>era- 

 tion than through the type of competition which characterized 

 the pre- 19 14 European world. 



While China has discarded the form of provincialism which 

 it assumed following the Golden Era of the Han Dynasty nearly 

 two thousand years ago, and seems prepared to adopt a more 

 international outlook, one wonders if this renaissance of inter- 

 nationalism will not be accompanied by orthodox attitudes at 

 least as unprogressive as those which characterized the wall- 

 bound China of earlier centuries. 



In recent years the leaders of the Soviet Union have appeared 

 willing to abandon the oppressive posture which characterized 

 the darkest days of the Stalin era and to join the world com- 

 munity more fully as a partner. One cannot quite forget, how- 

 ever, the suddenness with which the Hitler-Stalin Pact was 

 consummated at a very critical hour in world affairs and won- 

 der whether the rift between Moscow and Peking is really as 

 wide as the current vituperation suggests. The Cuban missile 

 crisis did little to put our minds at rest. 



In order to understand the constraints 

 Historical Background which our own characteristically 

 of Science American outlook imposes on us more 



fully, we should compare our own 

 attitudes toward science with the traditional attitudes found 

 in Europe, remembering not only that modern science was in- 

 vented in Europe but that it was fostered there through a 

 period in which it clearly would have died out if it had been 

 given to us alone to foster. 



