Ralph Vary Chamberlin

“ The best a finite mind can achieve is but a dim outlining of what may be in a final cast of thought the ultimate in the relations of reality and mind. "Truths emerge from facts, but they dip forward into facts again and add to them, which facts again create or reveal new truth." What we call natural laws tersely summarize our experience of the world at a given time and endow us with a gift of prophecy that points the way to new advances.
Difficulties are to science the stepping stones to higher ground. ”

“ We all stand in the midst of a continuous accretion of facts and experiences and the evolution of truth. The body of human knowledge is forever incomplete, but forever growing. We can see no possible end to its expansion, no prospect of its becoming final. Thus the vitally important thing is not this or that scientific discovery or the materialities of life that flow from it, but the attitude of mind, the mode of thinking without trammel, that makes for the discovery and acceptance of new truth. ”

“ Modern culture has come into being through science and the control of the forces of Nature which it has yielded. The rationalistic spirit of science is the spirit moulding the modern world, its implication being not so much the importance of any particular truth as the right to seek truth and to extend it unhampered by restrictions or authority other than that of Nature herself. Through science man has ceased to be the plaything of blind forces. ”

“ The human situation today corroborates Huxley's observation that "a man's worst difficulties begin when he is free to do as he likes." Liberated from the restraints of drudgery and of much of tradition, he is the plaything of opinion, propaganda, fashions and fads, and has made the popular newspaper, moving-picture and radio what they are. Freed from the ravages of famine and pestilence, he sacrifices millions of men in a futile war-world, using his immensely increased power to achieve primitive, irrational ends. ”

“ Thus the end of education is not the mere acquisition of knowledge but the achievement of a point of view, of an attitude toward life and an orientation to the world. Everywhere the most urgent educational problem should be recognized as the broad inculcation of scientific method and understanding, as inducing the habit of independent, rational and equable thinking, the habit of relying upon accurate information and tested facts, upon observation and experiment rather than upon authority and precedent, the habit and capacity of keeping abreast of the latest findings. ”

“ The basic idea that has determined our modern civilization and set it off from all others is the scientific idea. This is unquestionably the age of science; but if we have in mind the people rather than the movement, this statement must be strongly qualified. Our age stands for certain achievement, for a certain mentality which few of us exhibit. It is remarkable that so few even among scientists themselves maintain the scientific attitude outside their own limited subjects, but in such fields as religion, morals and politics reveal an extraordinary inertia of early habit. ”

“ Tennyson's Ulysses As to any final meanings, science requires a hardy renunciation. What can be known, let us seek with all vigor and honesty of means at our disposal; what cannot be known, let us face fearlessly and no less honestly. There clearly emerges then this profoundly significant fact: our entire modern civilization rests upon a technology which has grown out of pure science, which is dependent upon a race of men who deliberately and unswervingly refuse to consider their own "desires, tastes, and interests as affording a key to the understanding of the world." ”

“ All the progress we have won has depended upon truth, and the acquisition of this truth upon intellectual honesty.
For ages the idea of truth in common thought has been that of something absolute and final, "a light planted in eternal principles and shining upon our path." Every such idea of absolute truth, however, has failed in some phase in the test of new knowledge and progressive living. In contrast with this way of thinking, to the scientist what is regarded as truth at any particular time is not likely to be final. ”

“ The time is ripe for a full realization of this role of science in our civilization and of the major results it has reached, especially those now so clearly demonstrated as to the true relation of man to Nature. Such knowledge must soon be made the basis and guide in planning for social development and government, if we are to avoid ultimate catastrophe. Such procedure would abate many persistent evils that now flow from neglect of this knowledge, such as those resulting from futile efforts made under the perennial illusion that progress depends upon economics and social regulations. ”

“ It should be obvious, then, that ethical codes must change as knowledge and civilization change." Hence, as John Dewey has said: "The vanity and inexpansibility of values that are merely final and not also means to the enrichment of other occupations of life ought to be obvious." The process of growth, of improvement and progress rather than the static outcome and result become the significant thing. "Growth itself is the only moral end." Not perfection as a final goal, but the ever-enduring process of perfecting, maturing, refining is the aim of living. ”

“ Man would seem to be the only creature who through superior intelligence is able to persuade himself that things are not as they are but as he wishes them to be.
But the really great game man has had to play has not been within his own ranks, where subtle acts of intellectual deception and propaganda have often prospered; it has been an incessant one with Nature who from time to time chastens him and restores his sanity by bringing him back to earth. For Nature can be neither deceived nor wheedled. ”

“ In spite of the resistance opposed by the preponderance of contradictory systems of thought, science has transformed the world because it has been able continuously to justify itself by its works. Men may and do ignore logic, but they cannot long ignore the compulsion of concrete events and demonstrations. Science has made our civilization, as manifested in material things, in progressive thought, in individual and social emancipation, and especially in all that falls under the heading of rational control. ”

“ Science now separated itself from philosophy and has since maintained its course untrammeled by extraneous motives. Thinkers became convinced that the scientific method could be equally well brought to bear in all realms whatsoever, and rendered tremendous service in establishing in the minds of men a new confidence in the stability of the world and in the human reason. The Age of Reason which they so optimistically anticipated has not yet arrived; but science has continued its advance without interruption and pours out its products in ever increasing volume. ”

“ The social situation today to some men, such as Professor Einstein, reveals unmistakable signs of degeneration and decay. However interpreted, it is so obviously one of general confusion, instability, and widening conflict, both between and within nations, and the immediate future is so beclouded, that the need of an early, coherent evaluation of man's nature and behavior is insistent if we are to turn from a course which, in spite of our invincible American optimism, some able thinkers believe is leading toward the greatest tragedy in the history of mankind—the end of modern civilization. ”

“ As it was, the 17th century was to prove the crucial one in the development of the new interest, for by virtue of a handful of men of unparalleled genius, who followed one after another, that century was to see the greatest single intellectual achievement the race has yet won. Galileo prepared the way for the miracle, but it was Newton who formulated finally the laws of motion, the law of gravitation and the basic physical ideas which have served so well ever since as the foundation of astronomy and mechanical science. ”

“ What was earlier a sporadic and personal attitude "has become an organized social effect which moves mankind more profoundly than anything else in human affairs." As Pasteur once said: "In our century science is the soul of the prosperity of nations and the living source of all progress. Undoubtedly the tiring discussions of politics seem to be our guide—empty appearances! What really leads us forward is a few scientific discoveries and their application." ”

“ In regard to the problem raised here, it may be repeated that the advance of social justice has been brought about and conditioned by exactly the same methods of intelligence as those which led to the creation of the radio and to the elimination of yellow fever. Everything we call precious has been wrested by the power of human intelligence from the dark chaos of mystery and brutality. The things man prizes as most worth while are the fruits of his own toilsome effort. The connection of the moral progress of the modern age with its scientific and material achievement is not accidental. ”

“ We must educate them to expect change as the only constant thing in life, to welcome it and to assimilate it as it comes; for the only security we can look forward to is that found in ideally controlled progress. The crucial test of the success of education should be an inclination and capacity for indefinite growth; a growth social because participating in the best life of the world. ”

“ The outcome of this extension can only be the attainment of the great society of which men have dreamed, culminating in an organized world-state. Nothing but a catastrophe that will destroy the scientific trend and annul the biological process that antedates and underlies this trend, with a consequent lowering of the whole level of civilization, can prevent this denouement. Such outcome could only mean an era of world-like peace and happiness in which much of present human tragedy would be abolished. ”

“ It is not the machinery of life, but life itself with its capacities and purposes that is primary, and the "millenium, like the kingdom of heaven, is within us." The machinery must be commanded by ability and purpose to become a means to new realms and new life. ”

“ Science is concerned today over the present world-wide threat to democracy, which is on what I believe to be a temporary defensive. Science is the natural ally of democracy. It has fostered the growth of the democratic ideal; and democracy offers the type of government which is a necessity to its free development. It is opposed to repression and to dictatorships, under whatever name or guise. ”

“ The remedy does not lie in abolishing either freedom or authority, but in establishing a rational basis for interrelating them. It cannot lie in more drastic doses of old remedies; and we certainly cannot expect relief from the same sources—industrialists, capitalists, politicians, and others—who have so clearly demonstrated their ineffectiveness.. What we need is not a superman or a greater concentration of power in individuals or bureaus or planning bodies of the old sort, but the thorough-going application of the method that has been used with such remarkable success in science. ”

“ Our supreme obligation to the race is to do what we can to further its progress.
The advance in science and civilization may well be checked by the present level of intelligence; but there lies hope for continual advancement in knowledge and improvement in culture in the biological probability that the human species has not reached its limit with respect to intellectual ability. In fact, the biologist, in the light of man's past, sees his future optimistically as presenting almost unlimited possibilities. Man has the means of consciously determining his own future. ”

“ The habit of a scientific attitude and approach, in place of emotionalism, among a larger proportion of the people would be the only effective defense against insidious propaganda and falsification and thereby a preventive against the ceaseless repetitions of "the struggle to liberate mankind from the clutches of its most recent liberators, crowd devouring crowd, mass movements marching to Utopia down blind alleys." ”