Sanjay Yadav

Principal,

Salmiya Indian Model School, Kuwait,

Ph. 00965 – 25616838,

Email: sanjay.syadav@gmail.com.

Science & Society            

Never did any idea change the fabric of human society as has been done by the advances of science. Scientific truths have thorns about them as roses have; and yet the sensuous joy derived from them is soul stirring. One embodies the pride of man’s hands and brains; the other is a gift of Nature to man, whose desire to make his earth a paradise, has led him to the mystery that Nature is. It is in the nature of things, man-made or natural, that they produce negative aspects with positive ones; and that they interact to bring about unexpected and inevitable results. The nature of scientific truths has been moulded, sometimes brilliantly, since they were introduced into human society. Let us, then, discover for ourselves both the roses and the thorns to determine the right course of action that, as enlightened citizens, we must help to disseminate lest the mushroom cloud of a nuclear holocaust breaks into a reality enveloping this beautiful earth of ours in complete destruction.

The march of events connected with human history brings before us the various phases of development of science, its constructive use as well as its devastating misuse by power-seekers of all time. Society has been keeping pace with the latest developments. It has, beyond any doubt, proved to be a determining factor of scientific research.

The word ‘science’ has numerous interpretations depending on the context in which it is used. It may mean an objective verification of any available data of things, persons or places; it may mean practical application of a theory, or it may precisely imply a contrast with intuitive knowledge, mythical beliefs and magical performances. Albert Einstein has defined the purpose and meaning of science in these words:

“Science as something existing and complete is the most objective thing known to man. But science in the making, science as an end to be pursued, is as subjective and psychologically conditioned as any other branch of human endeavour – so much so, that the question – ‘what is the purpose and meaning of science’ receives quite different answers at different times and from different sorts of people.”

As a human activity, science, in all its possible meanings and applications, is inseparable from the phases of social evolution. At no time of human history science was given an independent status; and yet science has pervaded all social life. It is in terms of following ideas that the impact of science on society is unmistakably felt:

• **Science applies a particular method for various investigations.
• **It has brought about a new attitude to the universe.
• **It has become an institution within society.
• **It is a major factor in the large scale production and its maintenance.

The Scientific Temper

The original meaning of science is ‘reasoned knowledge’. The scientific temper represents a spirit of query and as such involves the process of logical reasoning. It tries to find out the cause and the rational justification of an event objectively and is free from all prejudices and make-believe. It would attempt to explain the cause-effect relationship between two or more events. Thus a man with scientific attitude would not like to take for granted and believe in irrational beliefs and superstitions. Such beliefs differ from society to society according to their culture, ethos and heritage and the attitudes of the individuals. What is auspicious to one group may be inauspicious to another. Thus, being irrational, they lack universal applicability. A piece of scientific knowledge, which is true and objective, must possess the qualities of universality and verifiability.

The traditionalists and authoritarians often look down upon the scientific knowledge as an inadequate explanation of reality. But they fail to provide any alternative method having better qualities. It is the scientific knowledge alone which provides a body of verified and tested truth and always tries to eliminate what is vague, ambiguous and indefinite. One great merit of the scientific method is that it adopts a self corrective process. In fact, all sciences progress by disproving, revising and sometimes rejecting the earlier ideas, laws, theories and beliefs in order to gain more and more definite and comprehensive explanation of things. This helps in cultivating such essential qualities of the human mind like sustained effort, detachment, tolerance, objectivity and creativity, which are essential equipments for solving the personal, social and international problems of men.

A man with scientific temperament is always open-minded and as such he is never under the illusion that sc ience and technology can provide a panacea to human ills.

Science: Its Contribution to Literature

Science is not merely a form of knowledge with which to question the misconceptions about man and his universe; it is not merely a method for probing into material aspect of Nature; it is, over and above these, a perfect outlook – a consistent philosophy of life. Born of necessity and brought up by social aspirations, science has re-shaped human destiny by its ability to penetrate into all areas of human experience. It is now all pervading. Even the springs of social action, defined and measured by social sciences, are the offspring of the sciences. The social sciences, humanities, literature, philosophy, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, etc., have reached new heights in our time by using the findings as well as methods of science. In transforming human consciousness, science has played a determining role in moulding art and literature towards social reality, and has forced us to question the very existence of literature, if it is not an expression of and is not alive to social progress for which man has been struggling hard from the dawn of human’ history.

During the period of classicismand neo-classicism, poets and litterateurs paid great attention to the Beautiful. Before the advent of science, the True and the Good were not accorded the same significance as was given to the Beautiful. Beliefs and myths had fully gripped the conscience of the artist.

With the advent of science, truth became the very essence of literature. The litterateurs came to realize that the Beautiful was one of the characteristics of poetry but it was not the whole of poetry. The beginning of objective thinking had been stressed by Shakespeare in his tragedy, Hamlet. When Hamlet, after the visit of his father’s ghost, begins to tell Horatio about villainy in Denmark, Horatio checks him by saying:

“There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave, to tell us this ”.

It is indisputable that science has disillusioned idealistic poets. There are examples of protest against such influences. John Keats sharply reacted to the discoveries of Newton, called him a cool-minded philosopher. He was of the confirmed view that science is a destroyer of colour and beauty. Yet it was him only who said, “Life is like a multi-coloured dome of glass”.

With industrialization came material prosperity as well as economic disparity. Literature needed to adopt a new art form that could handle the subtleties and complexities of this new human situation. The novel came into existence. The novel and short story draw substantively on science. Great endeavour seems to have been made here to depict man with all his qualities and weaknesses. What we should bear in mind in this context is the danger impending over such treatment. To present unauthentic emotions by creating fictional scenes of science is destined to be a serious contradiction. This genre of fictional literature will cease to appeal in the time when things are proved otherwise.

A disregard of truth at any level of creativity is a complete disregard of the soul of a work of art. Mere speculation is not enough in literature. It must also be remembered that an authentic literary creation draws as much on the truth of science as on self-experience.