首页
登录
职称英语
In last week’s Tribune, there was an interesting letter from Mr. J. Stewart
In last week’s Tribune, there was an interesting letter from Mr. J. Stewart
游客
2023-12-02
22
管理
问题
In last week’s Tribune, there was an interesting letter from Mr. J. Stewart Cook, in which he suggested that the best way of avoiding the danger of a "scientific hierarchy" would be to see to it that every member of the general public was, as far as possible, scientifically educated. At the same time, scientists should be brought out of their isolation and encouraged to take a greater part in politics and administration.
As a general statement, I think most of us would agree with this, but I notice that, as usual, Mr. Cook does not define science, and merely implies in passing that it means certain exact sciences whose experiments can be made under laboratory conditions. Thus, adult education tends "to neglect scientific studies in favor of literary, economic and social subjects", economics and sociology not being regarded as branches of science, apparently. This point is of great importance. For the word science is at present used in at least two meanings, but the whole question of scientific education is obscured by the current tendency to dodge from one meaning to the other.
Science is generally taken as meaning either (a) the exact sciences, such as chemistry, physics, etc., or (b) a method of thought which obtains verifiable results by reasoning logically from observed fact.
If you ask any scientist, or indeed almost any educated person, "What is science?" you are likely to get an answer approximating to (b). In everyday life, however, both in speaking and in writing, when people say "science" they mean (a). Science means something that happens in a laboratory: test-tubes, balances, Bunsen burners, microscopes. A biologist, an astronomer, perhaps a psychologist or a mathematician, is described as a "man of science": no one would think of applying this term to a statesman, a poet, a journalist or even a philosopher. And those who tell us that the young must be scientifically educated mean, almost invariably, that they should be taught more about radioactivity, or the stars, or the physiology of their own bodies, rather than that they should be taught to think more exactly.
This confusion of meaning, which is partly deliberate, has in it a great danger. Implied in the demand for more scientific education is the claim that if one has been scientifically trained one’s approach to all subjects will be more intelligent than if one had had no such training. A scientist’s political opinions, it is assumed, his opinions on sociological questions, on morals, on philosophy, perhaps even on the arts, will be more valuable than those of a layman. But a" scientist", as we have just seen, means in practice a specialist in one of the exact sciences. It follows that a chemist or physicist, as such, is politically more intelligent than a poet or a lawyer. And, in fact, there are already millions of people who do believe this.
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. There were plenty of gifted men to do the necessary research on such things as synthetic oil, jet planes, rocket projectiles and the atomic bomb.
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—Jew apart—who voluntarily exiled themselves or were persecuted by the regime 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".
But does this mean that the general public should not be more scientifically educated? On the contrary! All it means is that scientific education for the masses will do little good, and probably a lot of harm, if it simply boils down to more physics, more chemistry, more biology, etc. to the detriment of literature and history. Its probable effect on the average human being would be to narrow the range of his thoughts and make him more than ever contemptuous of such knowledge as he did not possess; and his political reactions would probably be somewhat less intelligent than those of an illiterate peasant who retained a few historical memories and a fairly sound aesthetic sense.
Clearly, scientific education ought to mean the implanting of a rational, skeptical, experimental habit of mind. It ought to mean acquiring a method—a method that can be used on any problem that one meets—and not simply piling up a lot of facts. Put it in those words, and the apologist of scientific education will usually agree. Press him further, ask him to particularize, and somehow it always turns out that scientific education means more attention to the exact sciences, in other words—more facts. The idea that science means a way of looking at the world, and not simply a body of knowledge, is in practice strongly resisted. I think sheer professional jealousy is part of the reason for this. [br] When people are talking about science, they may NOT refer to________.
选项
A、physics
B、physiology
C、philosophy
D、psychology
答案
C
解析
细节题。第四段第五句指出,生物学家、天文学家或者心理学家、数学家都可以被称为“科学工作者”,但没有人会想把这个称呼用在政治家、诗人、记者乃至于哲学家身上。由此可知,哲学是日常生活中不被认为是科学的学科,物理学虽然没有明确提及,但它是基于实验基础的学科,显然也属于人们通常认为的科学范畴,故选[C],同时排除其他三项。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3237114.html
相关试题推荐
EnglishBusinessLetterFormatI.Demandsofstationer
EnglishBusinessLetterFormatI.Demandsofstationer
EnglishBusinessLetterFormatI.Demandsofstationer
Inlastweek’sTribune,therewasaninterestingletterfromMr.J.Stewart
Inlastweek’sTribune,therewasaninterestingletterfromMr.J.Stewart
Inlastweek’sTribune,therewasaninterestingletterfromMr.J.Stewart
Inlastweek’sTribune,therewasaninterestingletterfromMr.J.Stewart
Inlastweek’sTribune,therewasaninterestingletterfromMr.J.Stewart
WhichofthefollowingisNOTapoembyEmilyDickinson?A、ThisIsMyLettertot
Formethemostinterestingthingaboutasolitarylife,andminehasbeenthat
随机试题
Indepartmentstoresandclosetsallovertheworld,theyarewaiting.Their
[originaltext]M:Err...Sandra.I’vefinishedwithMrGartnernow.(12)Doyouth
半封闭式制冷压缩机,其内置电动机的绕组必须耐()。A.高温 B.制冷剂
某房地产经纪公司在A区有房地产租售项目,该项目周边为中心商务区,上班人员80%以
某社会工作者在社区调查中了解到许多居民彼此之间交往很少,对社区毫不关心。为了推动
()是指一定数量的一组被评人,在规定时间内就给定的问题进行讨论。A:案例分析
内部评级法分为初级内部评级法和高级内部评级法,两种评级法都可自行估计的风险因素是
心脏病患者在以下哪种情况下最易并发感染性心内膜炎A.咽喉炎症或行口腔手术 B.
用某中草药预防流感,其用药组与对照组的流感发病率情况如下表,则构成四格的四个基本
下列选项中,会计来核算的优点有()。A.逻辑性不强 B.核算严密 C.人为
最新回复
(
0
)