70 Research and National Purpose 



ural Experimental Philosophy, especially those Parts of it 

 which concern the Encrease of Commerce, by the Addition of 

 Useful Inventions tending to the Ease, Profit, or Health of 

 our Subjects." 2 



The fathers of modern science saw it as a body of exact 

 knowledge which could lead to useful application, or as we 

 would call it today, technology. But their successors did 

 not always view it in the same light. In the United Kingdom, 

 for example, pure science has in general flourished over the 

 years, whereas scientific technology has only too often lan- 

 guished. In other countries, notably the United States and 

 Germany, the importance and value of an up-to-date tech- 

 nology has always been widely recognized. Almost always when 

 efforts have been made to spur the United Kingdom to an 

 interest in science and in education in the sciences, as hap- 

 pened during a large part of the 19th century, and as has been 

 going on continuously during the two decades since the Sec- 

 ond World War, attention has been directed, for purposes of 

 example, to the achievements of other countries, such as the 

 United States, and the emphasis of the debate has been es- 

 sentially utilitarian. There was as much talk of the need for 

 more science in 19th century England, with Commissions 

 counselling the establishment of Ministries of Science and of 

 Government Boards of Science, as there can have been any- 

 where in the world. Perhaps the most powerful propagandist 

 for science of modern times was Lyon Playfair, who warned 

 his fellow-Britishers as early as 1851 that "as surely as darkness 

 follows the setting of the sun, so surely will England recede 

 as a manufacturing nation, unless her industrial population 

 becomes much more conversant with science than they now 

 are." ^ And a little later he added: "In this country we 

 have eminent 'practical' men and eminent 'scientific' men, but 

 they are not united and generally walk in paths wholly distinct. 



2. Bernal, J. D. (1939). The Social Function of Science. London. Kegan Paul. 



3. Cardswell, D. S L. (1957). The Organisation of Science in England. Lon- 

 don. Heinemann. 



