Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T17:10:24.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Science, Culture, and Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Howard Becker*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin

Extract

Science is one faith and has one great commandment. The faith is simply that man can control his future in his own interest. In the face of the appalling discrepancy between the powers of the natural and the social sciences, a discrepancy that leads to visions of man's liquidation by man, the assertion is nevertheless made that the remedy for the consequences of science is more science. The long record of scientific victories in the past gives some warrant, let us suppose, for faith in continued victory, but at bottom there is no compelling proof. There never has been, and, I make bold to say, there never will be. The role of scientist in the human drama always contains lines reminiscent of Prometheus; an utterly nonrational belief in ultimate triumph lends him strength to confront what to others may seem a hopeless future. (This entire paper is so condensed as to be almost elliptical at many points. Fortunately, the writer has dealt with several of the topics touched upon in his recent book, Through Values to Social Interpretation. (3) The frequency with which it will appear in the references is not because the writer regards it as of major importance, but because it dovetails more neatly with this paper than do many other more significant books. Moreover, it has fairly full footnote and chapter bibliographies. The statements in the non-parenthetical part of this paragraph are good examples of the near-elliptical character of much of what is said here. Expansion is badly needed, but the reader must be referred to (2) ch. vi of (3). The position represented is not new; many writers, among them William James, have held it in various ways.)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1952, The Williams & Wilkins Company

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Barnes, H. E., Becker, Howard, and Becker, F. B., ed., Contemporary Social Theory, Appleton-Century, New York. 1940.Google Scholar
2. Becker, HowardThe Limits of Sociological Positivism,” Journal of Social Philosophy, VI (July, 1941): 362–370.Google Scholar
3. Becker, Howard: Through Values to Social Interpretation. Duke University Press, Durham, N. C., 1950.Google Scholar
4. Cassirer, Ernst Philosophie der symbolischen Formen. Bruno Casairer, Berlin. 1923–1929 (and various English adaptations of this and his other works).Google Scholar
5. Goldstein, Kurt Language and Language Disturbances. Grune and Stratton, New York, 1948.Google Scholar
6. Herodotus, , History of the Persian Wars, trans. by J. Enoch Powell, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1949.Google Scholar
7. Langer, Suzanne Philosophy in a New Key. Harward Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1942.Google Scholar
8. Lundbero, George Foundations of Sociology. Macmillan Co., New York. 1939.Google Scholar
9. Mannheim, Karl Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. With a preface by Louis Wirth. (Trans. Louis Wirth and Edward Shils.) Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York. 1936.Google Scholar
10. Mannheim, Karl: Freedom, Power, and Democratic Planning, edited and with an introduction by Gerth, H. H. and Bramsted, E. K.. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. 1950.Google Scholar
11. Mead, George H. Mind, Self, and Society. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1934.Google Scholar
12. Myres, J. L. Political Ideas of the Greeks. Abingdon Press, New York. 1927.Google Scholar
13. Piaget, Jean Language and Thought of the Child. Harcourt Brace and Company, New York. 1928. (and other writings.)Google Scholar
14. Schutz, AlfredLanguage, Language Disturbances, and the Texture of Consciousness,” Social Research, XVII (Sept., 1950): 365–394.Google Scholar
15. Woodard, James W.The Relation of Personality Structure to the Structure of Culture,” American Sociological Review, III (October, 1938): 637–651.Google Scholar
16. Woodard, James W. Intellectual Realism and Culture Change. Sociological Press, HaDover, N. H. 1935.Google Scholar
17. Znaniecki, Florian Cultural Sciences: Their Origin and Development. University of Illinois Press, Urbana. 1952.Google Scholar