The function of science in the modern state / by Karl Pearson.

  • Pearson, Karl, 1857-1936.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The function of science in the modern state / by Karl Pearson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    not be surprised to see a real renascence of scientific originality in Germany—comparable with that of i860 to 1880—if its intellect be freed from the incubus of militarism. How can we meet that coming organization for the contests of peace ? Only bv free¬ ing our state executive from the dominance of minds trained solely on literature and jurisprudence, and recognizing that in the modern state the function of science—science in its broadest sense, namely the observation of facts, physical, organic and mental, and the analysis of the observed sequences—extends not only to every department of administration but to all those branches of national activity, which it is the duty of the true statesman not only to foster, but if necessary to create. It is no longer possible either in transport and distribution or in production itself to leave affairs to the initiative of the individual drawn to the field by the desire for profit. He will naturally seek the field of easy tilth and of quick returns regardless of whether he exhausts the soil or not. It is the state alone which can pursue knowledge, which can develop activities, which can store material wealth with a view to distant profit. It alone has continued existence, while the individual stretches out his hands for sufficiency or pleasure in his own brief day. He looks only to those phases of science which are of quick and easy applica¬ tion—and there is very little science to-day which is of that character. The individual looks to his own special corner, and may welcome a specialist to aid him, if such an one is forthcoming, if the trained mind is already there. But it is not his job to produce trained