The impact of science on society

pp. 39-75

in: Edward Ballard, James K. Feibleman, Paul G. Morrison, Robert C. Whittemore, Studies in social philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 1962

Abstract

(a) An estimation of the present. Science is an institution which has been in existence for a brief few hundred years. In that short time there is not an area in the whole of human life which it has not touched. It has challenged the thought of those who devote themselves to ultimate questions, the philosophers and theologians and speculators of every variety. It has stimulated the imagination of those who through the arts deal with the values corresponding to pure feeling. It has revolutionized the scene of ordinary action by altering and improving the practical life through the benefits of applied science in matters of health, housing, transportation, communication, education, defense, and a thousand other places. It has completely changed our most fundamental beliefs and our most ordinary common sense, and so long as we allow it to proliferate freely we shall be at its mercy.