Bobby的个人博客分享 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/u/Bobby

博文

跟人文学者相比,科学家有什么好牛的?

已有 2325 次阅读 2018-12-24 19:29 |个人分类:科学感想|系统分类:人文社科

George Orwell在《What is science?》中提到,科学家在科学领域之外,并不比普通人更明智,他以“抵制民族主义能力(the ability to withstand nationalism)”为例,德国纳粹时期,就有很多科学家追随德国政府,为其战争机器研究合成油料、喷气飞机、火箭和原子弹之类等。跟德国科学家全盘接受“种族科学(racial science)”相比,德国作家和记者则要好一些。

 

But is it really true that a ‘scientist’, in this narrower sense, is any likelier than other people to approach non-scientific problems in an objective way? There is not much reason for thinking so. Take one simple test — the ability to withstand nationalism. It is often loosely said that ‘Science is international’, but in practice the scientific workers of all countries line up behind their own governments with fewer scruples than are felt by the writers and the artists. The German scientific community, as a whole, made no resistance to Hitler. Hitler may have ruined the long-term prospects of German science, but there were still plenty of gifted men to do the necessary research on such things as synthetic oil, jet planes, rocket projectiles and the atomic bomb. Without them the German war machine could never have been built up.

On the other hand, what happened to German literature when the Nazis came to power? I believe no exhaustive lists have been published, but I imagine that the number of German scientists — Jews apart — who voluntarily exiled themselves or were persecuted by the règime was much smaller than the number of writers and journalists. More sinister than this, a number of German scientists swallowed the monstrosity of ‘racial science’. You can find some of the statements to which they set their names in Professor Brady's The Spirit and Structure of German Fascism.

见: 

George Orwell What is science?

Tribune 'Voice of the Left' (1945) 9-11

George Orwell: What is Science?

orwell.ru/library/articles/science/english/e_scien
George Orwell What is Science | Science Education | Reason

https://www.scribd.com/.../355762053/George-Orwell-What-is-Science




https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-39731-1153329.html

上一篇:化学合成技术的突破为未来抗生素开发带来希望
下一篇:haphazard这个英语单词的发音有点怪
收藏 IP: 113.58.87.*| 热度|

2 罗娜 杨正瓴

该博文允许注册用户评论 请点击登录 评论 (0 个评论)

数据加载中...
扫一扫,分享此博文

Archiver|手机版|科学网 ( 京ICP备07017567号-12 )

GMT+8, 2024-9-7 22:17

Powered by ScienceNet.cn

Copyright © 2007- 中国科学报社

返回顶部