The New Role of the American Scientist

...Increasingly alarmed, the West is at last taking measures to meet this challenge...

...This trend can be traced back to the national obsession with preserving national security through secrecy and protecting it against betrayal by—real or imaginary—"disloyal scientists...

...Nevertheless, they will reinforce certain attitudes now absent or weak in economic and political life—openmind-edness, the capacity for objective analysis, readiness for experimentation—and counteract the tendency to follow obsolescent traditions and react by reflex to familiar slogans...

...Even at that time, however, there were rumblings of distrust: Many regarded scientists as peculiar people lacking in social responsibility, patriotism and loyalty—a dangerous breed whose inventions were useful but whose influence on national affairs should be curbed as much as possible...

...this has created the seemingly irreconcilable conflict between economic collectivism and individualism...

...One solution might be for American universities to press for an arrangement like that prevailing in England, whereby Government research aid is funneled not directly to the professor, but through some university body independent of the Government...

...The scientific and engineering profession is clearly heading toward greater recognition and influence in national economic policy...

...Some observers foresee that the fight for a unified, rationally directed, hence peaceful and prosperous world will sometimes place scientists in conflict with their own governments, and that they must face this ordeal...

...Finally, most scientists everywhere are simply too busy with their work and their private lives...

...The increased—and increasing—importance of natural science is bound to have repercussions in many areas...

...Today, despite some relaxation of the tensions which prevailed in the heyday of Senator McCarthy, American scientists remain a harassed group, occupying a defensive position in the political arena...

...This high concept of the duties and responsibilities of scientists is bound to encounter much skepticism— not least from many, if not a majority, of the scientists themselves...

...Since about 1948, scientists in America have been in the doghouse...

...The anti-scientific trend in America, just as it was bound to come, is bound to reverse itself sooner or later...

...Alan Nunn May and Klaus Fuchs lent support to the popular suspicion that scientists are deficient in national loyalty...

...If some professors are influenced in their teaching of science by a belief in dialectical materialism, that is as legitimate—or illegitimate—as being influenced by any other religious or philosophical dogma, but it does not make them "subversive...

...The growing influence of scientists and scientific thinking on human affairs seems inevitable...

...Thus, the movement is gradually gathering speed...

...A year ago, an international conference of scientists on the dangers of the atomic age was held in London, largely on the initiative of Bertrand Russell...

...This crisis is the result of the schism between the totalitarian and free worlds, the persistence of national sovereignties in a world which has become too small and interdependent for them, the revolt of formerly dependent races against the rule of the white man, the explosive growth of the world's population, and, most important, the development of weapons of mass destruction which make it possible for the human race to commit suicide...

...The conference set up a continuing body which is now attempting to arrange a second international gathering on a much wider base...

...The real threat to academic freedom may grow out of the twin development we are now witnessing: the increased role of natural science in the universities, and the increased involvement of science faculties in Government-sponsored research...

...In this way, the latter can be prevented from acquiring direct power of the purse over an individual professor or scientific project...

...Now, when this type of expansion threatens universal destruction, science and technology must point out other roads to increased prosperity and greater international status...

...Thus, the increasing role of science in academic life has not accentuated the old problem of academic freedom as the freedom to teach unpopular ideas...

...gained after the war, their influence in the direction of large private enterprises is growing, and with it their social prestige...

...If the spirit of the university as an independent institution of learning is to be preserved (perhaps one must already say "restored"), this problem must receive greater attention...

...ments for scientific and technical development and training a vast new generation of scientists and technicians...

...Another deeply rooted idea is that standards of living depend on the forms of economic organization...

...unless they want science to be the gravedigger of mankind, they have to face their new responsibility...

...The Euratom legislation subsequently passed by a decisive majority...

...It was they, many believed, who held the keys to the future power and prosperity of the nation...

...The possibility of twisting scientific teaching to fit political dogmas is cited in defense of these academic "purges," but the argument is totally unrelated to reality...

...Others will argue that the traditional international cooperation of scientists in purely academic matters is the best, if not only, contribution to world reconciliation they can make...

...A recent incident in Paris dramatized the new status of scientists...

...The concept has its origin in the era when a university was primarily a place where theology, philosophy...

...French Premier Guy Mollet, invoking a rarely-used prerogative of inviting non-Parliamentary speakers to the Parliamentary tribune, asked two prominent atomic scientists to address the National Assembly at the critical stage of the debate over the European Atomic Community (Euratom...

...This conflict, too, must be dissolved by the advance of science...

...One vitally important one is the relation between universities and the state, and the general problem of "academic freedom...

...Whether this will prevent the present world crisis from ending in catastrophe will depend on how rapidly and resolutely scientists recognize and carry out the responsibility which history has thrust upon them...

...Political and economic pressures call for rational techniques The New Role of the American Scientist By Eugene Rabinotvitch In 1945, after the revelation of the atom bomb, scientists enjoyed a period of respect and popular acclaim...

...At times, these forces have also attempted to restrict the teaching of natural science—from Copernicus and Galileo to Darwin and the Soviet suppression of Mendelian genetics...

...More often than not, these ideas affected institutions in which the entrenched forces of society — religious, social and political—had a vested interest and in which they regarded themselves as guardians of an immutable truth...

...Modern capitalism may have achieved an abundance of goods and a considerable leveling of differences in living conditions between the employer and employe classes—all in glaring contradiction of Marxian economic theory—but Soviet economic ideas remain shackled to the doctrine of the inevitable pauperization of the working class under capitalism...

...The Soviet Union has always based its planning on science and technology, making huge investEugene Rabinowitch, Editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, teaches at the University of Illinois...

...Despite the exceptionally enlightened attitude of many of these agencies, this inevitably entails a conflict of loyalties between that owed by the professor to his academic community and that owed to his Government sponsor (likely as not, a branch of the military...

...The situation remains different in the humanities, where dogmatic attitudes are much more resistant to the onslaught of facts...

...The addition of genetic dangers to that of destruction in a future war has made many medical scientists acutely aware of the problems which have tormented the consciences of atomic physicists since Hiroshima...

...This episode exemplifies the way in which scientists are likely to influence national policy in a world increasingly dominated by scientific and technological problems...

...Nevertheless, signs of ferment are apparent in the scientific world...

...Scientists are seen as "advisers to humanity," qualified for this position by their common understanding of a number of problems which are crucial to the very survival of mankind...

...The thesis, presented with particular eloquence by Sidney Hook, that a Communist lacks the intellectual independence and honesty required to teach any academic subject breaks down on the fact that Joliot-Curie's teaching of physics, Haldane's of genetics, or Struik's of mathematics is as competent and scientifically objective as that of anyone else, and that none of the younger "offenders" have been accused of any classroom bias...

...A rational approach to national and international problems, rather than adherence to the old, largely emotional patterns, is increasingly seen as our only hope, both in military planning for the prevention or winning of war and in peaceful competition with rival political and economic systems...

...Since scientists throughout the world have a similar outlook, their increased influence on the policies of their respective countries is bound to enhance international communication...

...Had it not been for the leaks of atom-bomb secrets, American universities would have been spared the loyalty oaths, Congressional investigations, and dismissals or suspensions of those invoking the Fifth Amendment—all the recent episodes commonly described as "violations of academic freedom" but actually having little to do with the original concept of the term...

...The most important concepts and theories in science have always been outside dogmatic controversy, despite Soviet or Nazi attempts to make it appear otherwise...

...For, when advanced technology is available, differences in economic systems become secondary so far as the capacity to produce material goods is concerned...

...For millennia, territorial expansion through conquest or colonization has been the accepted means of increasing the power and influence of a nation...

...At the same time, the only orthodox economic doctrine in America remains that of the inherent inefficiency of any economic system not driven by the profit motive and competition...

...Having released the genie of atomic power from the nucleus, they were unable to put it back in again...

...The campaign which led to the effective elimination from public life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atom bomb," was a fitting climax to this twilight of the gods...

...These scientists moving increasingly into positions of national influence will be predominantly of a different type from the Bohrs and Oppenheimers, the Fermis and Comptons of past generations...

...Even worse, a few scientists actually contributed to the national peril by committing acts of treason...

...While scientists have been largely removed from the positions as key Government advisers which some of them —Oppenheimer, Vannevar Bush, Karl T. Compton, etc...

...In most leading American universities, a substantial part of the total budget, and the greatest part of the research budget, is today derived from contracts and grants which tie staff members directly to Government agencies...

...history and, later, economics were taught—subjects in which any teacher, if he was to be more than a pedantic bore, could not limit himself to presentation of the facts but felt compelled to place them in a framework of general—and often controversial—ideas...

...In actual cases of interference with academic freedom in this country since World War II, the root of the trouble has rarely been the presentation of undesirable political or economic ideas (not to mention the teaching of evolution or other controversial scientific theories...

...While "raids" by Congressional investigating committees, and "purges" by over-zealous college authorities under the impact of these raids, may prove only passing alarms, the increasing concern of the Government with academic personnel and their work is a matter of continuing anxiety...

...True, the official explanation of the "purge" of some teachers has been that they might infect the minds of youth with subversive ideas, but in actual fact the underlying cause has been the desire to eliminate persons of supposedly doubtful loyalty from all public employment, whether in the schools or elsewhere...

...Only recently, we have seen the pseudo-science of Lysenkoism founder on the hard fact of the Soviet Union's need for hybrid corn...

...Many elements of this crisis—the shrinking of the world, the growing economic interdependence of nations, the destruction of the balance between birth and death rates, the growth of destructive power in the hands of sovereign states—are science's handiwork, and a rational, scientific approach is indispensable in dealing with it...

...It was they who had dramatically ended the war in the Far East...

...These, however, have remained isolated incidents which soon collapsed before the onward march of technology...

...Inexorable historical changes have forced upon scientists an unprecedented concern with world affairs...

...Many American scientists, for example, feel that they have a difficult enough time defending themselves against suspicion and assuring their right to engage in research, publish their findings, and pursue professional contacts without undertaking new tasks which would further jeopardize their status...

...The conflict of ideologies can thus be shifted to a less materialistic plane: the ethical and cultural values of freedom in the economic (and political) sphere...

...Public opinion expected the scientists to protect the nation against the danger of atomic destruction by discoveries as spectacular as the one through which they had increased America's striking power, but they soon proved almost as powerless to devise a defense against atomic weapons as they were to reform the political world...

...rather, it has created a new threat arising from the vital national importance of academic research as distinct from teaching and from the Government's exaggerated desire to insure the complete loyalty and proper political attitude of those individuals involved...

...their prescription—international control with enforceable safeguards—proved impracticable in the existing political world...

...A great many of the professors involved have been natural scientists, particularly physicists, but none has been—or could have been—accused of spreading "subversive" ideas in the classroom...

...Hence, while in the humanities the concept of academic freedom retains its connotation of the freedom to expound unorthodox ideas, the increasing role of natural science in institutions of higher learning lends it a different aspect...

...Their arguments—based on France's inability to produce by herself the scientific manpower and equipment needed to compete in world atomic-energy development—contrasted sharply with the politicians' familiar arguments, stressing either French national prestige or European solidarity...

...Their greater capacity for abstraction and generalization should promote policies based on long-range, rational planning—and in our age the pursuit of enlightened self-interest by an individual nation has become impossible without regard for the common well-being of mankind...

...They will be less "intellectual," less different in their interests, social habits and political attitudes from people in other walks of life...

...Traditionally, this term has connoted the freedom to teach, without interference, ideas which may be unpopular with the university or political authorities...

...The economic rewards available to physicists, electronic engineers and other categories of scientific personnel have risen sharply in recent years...

...Some even looked Hpon scientists as the men destined to rule the world in the "atomic age...