Can Science Bring Us Peace?
1997 Series 1 Number 23 Page 1
Jerzy Wojciechowsky, from the Department of Philosophy at U Ottawa, delivered the paper at the Interdisciplinary Conference on the Evolution of World Order, which was sponsored by Ryerson Polytechnical U in Toronto and the Caledon Centre for Culture and Education of SDI Canada.
Abstract
The development of science and technology has made possible the killing record of this century. One must therefore ask whether science and technology are inherently murderous? It is by analyzing the sources and ideas underlying them that we will attempt to answer this disturbing question. Modern science, with the technology it has spawned, is a product of Western Weltanchauung [a worldview] characterized by the biblical message of human dominion over nature, the notion of objectivity, and the distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge. All these ideas now appear questionable. Science has allowed westerners to rule humanity and exploit nature. War has often seemed a convenient way to achieve desired aims. Means of mass destruction and ecological crisis oblige us to rethink our assumptions and established modes of behavior. Ecology teaches us that it is not the strongest but the most compatible that have the best chances of survival. Thus, 3000 years after the biblical exhortation, science forces us to question the message which provided the incentive for the development of science and technology. Having given us the means to obliterate humanity science teaches us now how to assure humanity’s survival.
The essay contains an interesting set of laws about our behaviour.
- Law 1: The need to question the value of rational development is proportional to the development itself.
- Law 2: The probability of a war being a paying proposition is inversely proportional to the power of weapons.
- Law 3: The capacity to harm is proportional to the level of scientific knowledge.
- Law 4: The more we know, the more the world appears to us as interrelated and interdependent that is a coherent system
- Law 5: The more knowledge advances, the more analysis has to be complemented by a systematic approach.
- Law 6: The facility and rapidity of changes in established modes of behavior, as well as the need for these changes, are proportional to the level of knowledge.
Conclusion
“…unbeknownst to them, Polish workers in the Lennon shipyards in Gdansk, by forming Solidarity, have not only defeated communism, but also given us a blueprint for the future of humanity. May we all heed their example because, if we care for the well-being of our children and our children’s children, there is no alternative.”
Leave a Reply