The Scientific Outlook by Bertrand Russell

Author:Bertrand Russell [Russell, Bertrand]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Epistemology, Philosophy and Science, Humanities, Science and Civilization, Science, Philosophy, General, Civilization; Modern
ISBN: 9780415474627
Google: cV7Zo8z4tDwC
Amazon: 0415474620
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1959-01-01T23:00:00+00:00

Part II

Scientific Technique

6

BEGINNINGS OF SCIENTIFIC TECHNIQUE

No sharp line can be drawn between scientific technique and traditional arts and crafts. The essential characteristic of scientific technique is the utilization of natural forces in ways not evident to the totally uninstructed. A certain apparatus of desires is presupposed: men want food, offspring, clothing, housing, amusement, and glory. Uninstructed man can realize these things only very partially; man scientifically equipped can obtain much more of them. Compare, say, King Cyrus and a modern American billionaire. King Cyrus was, perhaps, the superior of the modern magnate in two respects; his clothes were grander, and his wives more numerous. At the same time, it is probable that his wives' clothes were not so grand as the clothes of the modern magnate's wife. It is part of the superiority of the modern magnate that he is not obliged to dress in glittering raiment in order to be known to be great; the newspapers see to this. I suppose not one hundredth as many people knew of Cyrus in his lifetime as know of a Hollywood star. This increased possibility of glory is due to scientific technique. In all the other objects of human desire which we enumerated just now, it is quite clear that modern technique has immensely increased the number of those who can enjoy a certain measure of satisfaction. The number of people who now own cars is greatly in excess of the number who had enough to eat one hundred and fifty years ago. By sanitation and hygiene the scientific nations have put an end to typhus and plague and a host of other diseases which still flourish in the East and formerly afflicted Western Europe. If one may judge by behaviour, one of the most ardent desires of the human race, or at any rate of its more energetic portions, has been until recently a mere increase of numbers. In this respect science has proved extraordinarily successful. Compare the number of people in Europe in the year 1700 with the number of European descent at the present day. The population of England in 1700 was about 5 million, and is now about 40 million. The population of other European countries, with the exception of France, has probably increased in about the same proportion. The population of European descent at the present day is about 725 million. Other races, meanwhile, have increased very much less. It is true that in this respect a change is coming over the world. The most scientific races no longer increase much, and really rapid increases are now confined to countries in which the government is scientific while the population is unscientific. This, however, arises from quite recent causes which we shall not consider at present.

The earliest beginnings of scientific technique belong to prehistoric times; nothing is known, for example, as to the origin of the use of fire, though the difficulty of procuring fire in early times is shown by the care with which sacred fires were tended in Rome and other early civilized communities.

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