Science and Government

Abstract

THE recent communication by R. H. F. Finlay¹represents a point of view which seems to have some currency at the present time: the right of ‘Science’ to govern. Is not this a threat to freedom? Since the foundation of science is the confession of truth, should we not admit that divided counsels are the breath of science; that not ‘certainties’ but hypotheses and theories form the stuff of science ; that the conclusions of science are no more than provisional opinions based on evidence ; that men of science have the virtues and vices of the politicians, trades unionists, lawyers, business men, peers and prelates through whom we govern ourselves today; that the omniscience proper to the law and so to government is foreign to science.; and that the part of science in the government (a part for which there is unbounded scope) is the provision of knowledge? For if ‘science’ assume authority, and the current beliefs of science have the force of law, freedom of opinion must perish and truth be shackled indeed.