Salute to the Cloakmakers
Morality for an Atomic Age An Appeal for an Extension of Science Into the Moral and Social Spheres By Eduard C. Lindeman AVAST amount of arrant nonsense has been written and spoken about the...
...It represent* an event which was to be expected.' If we were so educated as to entertain a greater respect for the expectations of science, we would be less likely to speak of scientific discoveries in terms of a discourse belonging to miracles and mysteries...
...But, doe* it not seem clear that an arc in which moral issues are precipitated by science must also become more scientific about morality...
...Many seem to take pride In the fact that atomic energy ia Mr »roud discovery and that we ssay keep the aeeret and Ita power fross others...
...If the fear theory of morality were sound, we should have eliminated war and crime long ago...
...If continuity exist* in nature, then it must have its counterpart in science, the instrument which strives to learn the truth about nature...
...Science, in other words, i* not the villain...
...I am* not thereby inferring that religion and the humanities are no longer to be thought of as sources of moral insight...
...How can truth be held blame-worthy...
...Som« insist that the scientists whose discoveries precipitated the moral issue heat no responsibility regarding their use...
...They must behave truthfully so long as they remain within the context of scientific method but they all too frequently fall into the grossest error* when they act as citizens...
...I do not mean to exonerate scientists as persons...
...The third rationalization which haa been used appears to me equally unsound...
...Likewise, if the humanistic tradition does not align it* affirmations with realistic and scientific fact, it will degenerate into a deadly faith which bears no relation to life...
...If we accept conventional answers to these queries,, the dilemma deepens...
...When science becomes more philosophies...
...The new humanism will in tur* grow out of science which is modsrs man's chief instrument for truth-seeking...
...What I am saying in that these disciplines will lose their authority unless they, too, becosM scientific...
...Science without a hum?nistu orientation ia likely to culminate in moral chaos...
...Our u«e of the atomic bomb probably cost the lives of 100,000 human beings, but over 30,000,000 human Illings had already been killed in this war and a fairly large percentage of these were women and children...
...If the war had lasted another year and if the steady improvement in existing weapons had continued, we should have probably killed many times the number who were destroyed in the two Japanese cities struck by the atomic bomb...
...Th issue here, as in all instances where knowledge becomes power, is this: how Is the new power to be used...
...They seem to believe that the sheer frightfulness of atomic energy's potentialities will somehow scare us all into being good...
...Pride and fear are close relatives and both are dubious foundations for morality...
...1 am amazed to learn that many of my contemporaries place so much faith tn fear...
...The discovery of atomic energy hi knowledge which when put to use becomes expressive of power...
...This is a moral question...
...Its appeal, in that case, will be either to the soft-minded, whose insulated goodness will become a show-ease display, or to the hard-minded moralists, who will seek to embody morality in a set of authoritative dogmatisms...
...I call all of this erroneous reasoning because our difficulty does not lie in the realm of science...
...Some publicist* have even gone so far a* to make the ridiculous proposal that scientific activities be halted or curtailed until men bring religion and moral* into a position of par...
...Knowledge is power—not because Bacon said so, but because we see its evidence on every hand...
...If the "law" of continuity applies to science as well as to the material with which science works, than the discovery of atomic energy does not belong to the fortuitous nor to the cataclysmic realm...
...This is bad psychology and faulty history...
...This means that moral decisions must be left to those who know little or nothing about science...
...or, when they fail to act as citizens and assume an attitude of "moral isolationism" with respect to public issues...
...Where do we seek answers for moral questions...
...If we can ? reseat nothing hotter than these three negative»—(ear, guilt and pride—then I think we asay as well all tura to pessimism and admit the total failure of the "human enterprise...
...Neither of these prospects Ieada to a sense of progress...
...Others appear to believe in the guilt theory of morals...
...Under these circumstances, we should also be less inclined to be "caught off base" when a new discovery, which incidentally is always a culminating point in a long series of prior discoveries, is announced...
...Because they believe in fear they strive to exaggerate the terrifying potency of atomic energy and thus increase the tempo of fear...
...If I may use the current cliche, an atomic age requires a dynami* morality...
...Once we admit that the basic question involved is moral we arrive at the crucial point of the current discussion...
...Bat, 1 for one, do not wie« to tako this coarse until alternative* have been explored...
...Perhaps some clarity may be introduced into this discussion if we examine a few generalization* within which this event, the discovery of atomic energy, must b* viewed...
...Who is responsible for making the moral decisions...
...I am appealing for an extension of science into the moral and social spheres...
...Science emerged front the humanlitie tradition which was a faith founded upon truth...
...I hope the Sew Leader't invitation for further comment on my part does not betray me into similar aberrations...
...In the first place, it seem* to me advisable to reaffirm the basic principle of continuity...
...This vicious separation ha* already gone so far a* to cause many scientists to attempt to divorce them, selves completely from moral issues...
...tin my special sense, moral) and pbil-osophy becomes more scientific, then there will be light...
...The main cry which has arisen among the alarmists since the announcement of atomic energy's discovery may be epitomized as another "back to religion" claim...
...They want us to feel sorry over the fact that a great scientific discovery has been made and that we found it useful in bringing the war to an abrupt end...
...The flaw does not reside in the truth which is revealed by science but rather In the lack of truthfulness which characterizes the behavior of politicians, power-seeking executives, writers who seek pecuniary success, preachers who think religion means helping people to avoid the world of reality, and teachers who admit of no necessary relation between their subject-matter and action...
...Morality for an Atomic Age An Appeal for an Extension of Science Into the Moral and Social Spheres By Eduard C. Lindeman AVAST amount of arrant nonsense has been written and spoken about the atomic bomb during the last fortnight...
...This demand usually includes at least two hidden elements namely, (a) an assumption that morality resides in and may be evoked from no other source than religion, and (b) an assumption that Hi* re is something sinister about science...
...On* detects a eertaln forth of anti scientific feeling, almost a "mad-on" about science, among many contemporaries...
Vol. 28 • September 1945 • No. 36
