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For some people Science is the supreme form of all knowledge During 17 - 18 centuries philosophers used to argue about whether our perception of the world truly represent surrounding reality. Rene Descartes, for example, in his Meditations on First Philosophy suggested that we can only use a logical approach when it comes to dealing with scientific matters, as our senses often mislead us to the wrong conclusions: I have seen round towers from afar, which closely observed seemed square, and colossal statues, which appeared tiny when closely viewed. I found error in the external senses, and in the internal (Descartes, Meditation 6). As methods of empirical science progressed, we now use both senses and logic as means of attaining the greater truth. Still, the peoples ability to operate with abstract categories is what guarantees any further scientific developments. Even in our days, we still refer to the ancient Greek civilization as an example of integral fusion between science, culture and art.
Plato's philosophical principles and mathematics of Archimedes are still being taught in schools and colleges. This is because at certain point of development, some representatives of humankind were able to divert their attention from their immediate needs and look up in the sky - they first thought of abstract matters. This signified the beginning of science and it automatically resulted in conceiving of what we now refer to as culture. People ability to operate with abstract categories was also the main reason for the emergence of language, as main communicational tool. There approximately 700. 000 words in modern English language, while there are still some primitive tribes in South America and Asia and Africa, whose vocabulary consist of 100 - 300 words. This is the real reason for why they were never able to progress further then inventing a spear, and not their exploitation by imperialist powers, as it is being taught now.
Peoples ability to see the relation between cause and consequence is another important factor, which allowed them to develop sciences. There are two ways to react on seeing lightning bolt continuously striking high trees to create a religion, or to simply try staying away from such trees, during thunderstorms. The second reaction is nothing else but an observation science, in most primitive form. Yet, the primitive science stands way above any perfect religion.
The role of language cannot be overestimated when we talk about science. Even in Bible, God is referred to as logos, which is literally translated as word. It shows us how much importance ancient people used to attribute to the minds verbal ability. It will suffice to say that philosophy is considered to be father of all sciences, but it wouldnt emerge if people werent able to communicate.
The literature and poetry came a direct result of language development. The science is what enabled our civilizations continuous progress. The modern scientific accomplishments are truly amazing. But it has to be taken into account that there were only two periods in the history of the world, when science was allowed to freely pursue its course during classical Greek and Roman eras, before the advent of Christianity, and the beginning of 19 th century to present times.
After Jesus has brought good news, the ancient science, in most of its notions a veritable science, was replaced by so many pseudo sciences, that only their brief survey would represent an encyclopedic task. Very hard and difficult was for the science to break out of Christian imprisonment. The number of intellectuals, killed by church, greatly overextends the number of different Saints and Holy men, who were killed mostly under accidental circumstances. Even now, the free scientific pursuit has to make its way through numerous ethical considerations, which are based on outdated Christian morality. The ban on human cloning is nothing but an attempt to slow down the scientific progress. Nevertheless, practice shows that no similar attempt in history has ever proved to be successful.
People wrongly think of ethics as concept opposite to pure science. This, of course, is a mistake. There can be hardly found any better concepts, upon which morality should be based, but intellect, beauty and health It is quite symbolic that many young people now associate word Armageddon with a popular movie, rather then with mythical battle between good and evil. There is a great allegory Christianity considers the end of the world to be inevitable and even strives for it, but science proved to be able to divert it. Up until even 10 years ago, Earth was defenseless against the strike of comet or an asteroid, but now government of U.
S. has a concrete plan of preventing the Armageddon with the means of nuclear weapons. Although, it cant be considered as 100 % effective, still humankind gets a fair chance of survival, not through the prayers but through actively participating in formation of its own destiny. It is a fact that in 50 years from now, our planet will simply become overpopulated. There are simply no enough natural recourses for all to find their place under the sun. The only hope is that scientists might be ale to find the alternative sources of energy and food.
It is proven that the amount of produced food can be rapidly increased with the means of genetic engineering. In this respect, it strikes as very odd that there are still many people, who think of this to be intolerable There is a certain danger in peoples comfort becoming the main goal of scientific pursuit. A certain tendencies towards this can even be observed now. For example, there werent real scientific breakthroughs being made in any other field except computer technology, within 20 years.
It shows that the scientific progress is also a subject to stagnation At the time of American Lunar expeditions, people were the least concerned with the practical aspects of those missions and with the cost. The important was to reach the Moon! The expedition to Mars wouldve been made possible long ago, if people possessed the same spirit. This tells us a great deal about the nature of empirical science the academic freedom is not enough, there also has to be willingness, on the part of society, to sacrifice certain things, in order to attain further scientific heights.
Besides having knowledge, any scientist also has to posses a civil courage. In 17 th century Jordan Bruno was willing to defend his Helios-Centric planetary concept right to very end, when Inquisition burned him at the stake for alleged heresy It goes without saying that science has given us so much, but it is a mistake to look for the immediate practical benefits, like most of people do now. Governments of developed countries spend millions of dollars on buying food for the needy children of overpopulated Africa, instead of investing into a healthcare of their own people, who increasingly suffer from various genetic diseases. As saying goes the road to hell is made out of good intentions The time is coming when people will have to decide of what represents the higher morality science or superstitions, reason or wishful thinking. Through gaining knowledge, people not only become masters of their own destinies, they also gradually get elevated to the status of Gods.
The Greek legend of Prometheus is very remarkable in this respect. He stole the secret of fire from Gods and brought it to people, making them less dependable on the whims of nature. How is Prometheus different from French biologist Posted, who in 19 th century has invented a vaccine, thus saving lives of thousands of people that used to die every year during various epidemics? Yet, before this, he had to experiment with applying vaccine in different cases, which led to few deaths among people that volunteered to be the subjects of his experiments To conclude this, let us to summarize what is being said earlier. There is no doubt that science is a supreme form of all knowledge.
Science is humanistic in its nature, as it has the potential to benefit the whole mankind, unlike any religion or moral code. The scientific progress in every particular society directly corresponds to the biological factors that define the quality of such society. Science also serves as an artistic inspiration. The most important about people being engaged in scientific pursuits is not that it benefits them practically, but that it allows them to remain essentially humans.
Bibliography: Descartes, Rene Meditations on First Philosophy. Edited by John Cottingham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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Research essay sample on Meditations On First Philosophy 19 Th Century
