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Science and Human Values

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Jacob Bronowski’s book, Science and Human Values is comprised of three essays, namely: (1) The Creative Mind, (2) The Habit of Truth and (3) The Sense of Human Dignity. These three essays were first given as lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on February 26, March 5 and March 19 1953 when Bronowski was a Carnegie Professor at the institution. They were then published after his return to England as articles in three issues of the Universities Quarterly in 1956, and a little later The Nation in The United States of America gave up its last issue of that year entirely to these essays. However, much later, the book, Science and Human Valueswaspublished by Julian Messner, Inc. New York and simultaneously in Canada by The Copp Clark Publishing Co. Limited. Bronowski’s source of inspiration to write these three essays was from his first visit to Nagasaki in Japan in November 1945, a few months after it was devastated by an atomic bomb. He was very aware of the importance of human values such as compassion and love in human society. He also knew that they would not invalidate the values of science. He had hoped to write about the relation between both sets of values, and the need for their amalgamation in human conduct. In 1990, Harper and Row, Publishers, New York published a revised edition of Science and Human Values. This revised edition includes minor changes and additions including small changes in the text and a new dialogue which is found at the end of the book entitled The Abacus and the Rosewhich is fundamentally an extended note which discusses the themes that run throughout the essays. This theme that Bronowski speaks of is that science is as integral a part of the culture of our age as the arts are and was epitomized in “The Two Cultures”, introduced by Sir Charles Snow in his Rede Lecture in 1959. Bronowski states in the Preface to the Revised Edition that, “Since then it has been debated with so much passion that it has seemed to me natural and just to present the arguments in the dramatic form of a dialogue.”(xii). He also added notes at the end of each essay which expounds on points that have fueled discussions and new matters which arose since the essays were first printed. Bronowski also states in the Preface to the Revised Edition that “The notes amplify my text and underline it; and I do not want to change anything else.”(xi). After familiarizing myself with works done by other authors, I found differences in their presentation and approach. In The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution(1959) written by C.P. Snow, he expresses the fact that he felt the need to write this book based on the fact that he saw a strong divide between scientists and humanists in society which gave rise to him referring to the two cultures as the sciences and the arts. These two cultures had no coherence as each failed to understand the other. ‘Non-scientists’ saw scientists as being brash and boastful while scientists thought that ‘non-scientists’ lacked intellect and intelligence. Snow, however, seemed to take the side of the scientists as he felt they had the future in their bones. Snow goes on to call these intellectuals "Natural Luddites"; men who refuse even to understand the industrial revolution. Snow decries their failure to celebrate this revolution because in his view "Industrialization is the only hope of the poor" (27) as there was another division where people were either rich or poor. He believed that the problem of his own age was that this revolution was being followed by a pure "scientific revolution" in the area of electronics, atomics, and automation, that was widening the cultural divide still further as pure scientists lost the ability to communicate with even the mechanics and artisans of industry, who had at least understood the industrial revolution.He located the solution to all of these problems in education. He thought that simply by making education in the West, specific

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