Cultural Significance of Science

Abstract

IN a communication printed in NATURE of January 25, p. 119, Prof. Polanyi takes issue with an earlier leading article¹ which had urged the rejection of the view that “science is set apart from all other social interests as if it possessed a peculiar holiness”. A peculiar holiness, he maintained, is exactly what science does possess. The issue has the appearance of being a fundamental one, since it goes to the root of the whole relation between science and the social order, and some measure of agreement about the nature of this relationship is widely considered to be an urgent need. It may therefore be worth while to point out that this particular example of disagreement seems to be based on a purely verbal ambiguity. In the editorial, “holiness” meant, surely, “having an esoteric character”, whereas to Prof. Polanyi it clearly meant “having overwhelming ethical value”. I, for one, and there are certainly many like me, would not agree for a moment to deny the ethical value of the scientific method; but also do not feel quite confident against the accusation that it has in the main been applied to an unduly narrow range of phenomena. Have we too often exerted ourselves to take an unbiased view of something which is so recondite that there is no adequate reason why the ordinary man should have any view of it, biased or not?