Is Modern Science Making The World A Better Place Or Is It Missing Something Essential?

Is ‘Modern Science’ making the world a better place or is it missing something very essential? It’s a question we often come across and the answer is usually inconclusive or controversial. To answer this question better we need to study the history of science. During my course of study, I got the opportunity to study and analyze the texts of ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, and determine what have we lost and gained during the transition to ‘Modern science’. There is no denying that science has made our lives better and has become an integral and inseparable part of our lives. But, at the same time, I feel like it misses something very important that makes it far from being perfect or a complete boon to humanity.
The journey …show more content…
For science to become what it is now, required the much-needed amalgamation of both qualitative and quantitative study of the natural phenomena. In my opinion, the works of philosophers/scientists like Descartes, Galileo, Newton etc. provided a solid foundation to the field of scientific research. They were critical of the hypotheses and tried to verify them by careful experimentation, observation, and calculation. This approach lacked in the works of previous philosophers. For example, the changes or motion were attributed to the nature of the object and the hypotheses were made but not verified. Plato, who was deeply inspired by the theories of Socrates, argued that senses are chains that tie us down. Thus, discarding senses as tools for acquiring true knowledge, which is contrary to the very spirit of modern science, which relies greatly on senses for observation and experimentation. Modern science follows a more pragmatic approach to solving problems. Thus, making it verifiable, consistent among the systems and more accurate. From my standpoint, I count this as one of the gains during the transition and the effect is reflected quite substantially even in our daily …show more content…
However, in our misguided search for knowledge, we have turned a blind eye towards the morals and human values. After science was segregated from philosophy, it became knowledge without wisdom, without moral and had no value except truth value. The modern scientist became so obsessed with the facts and mathematical approach that they completely neglected the importance of human values in their studies or works. The ancient philosophers focused not just on knowledge of facts but also of wisdom and moral. Especially the Chinese philosophers had their whole philosophy based on the forces of good and evil. They even considered wisdomless and objective knowledge as ‘grotesque'. For the ancient philosophers, the hypotheses don’t only need to be true but also morally improving and must lead to a perception of the Good. Knowledge without morals is like a loose cannon and can be highly destructive in nature. There are multitudinous instances of destruction brought by science including nuclear bombs. It is wrong to just take intellectual factors as the basis to measure scientific advancements. Theodore Roosevelt emphasizes on the importance of morality, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” In my opinion and as the evidence suggest, one of the major losses in our approach to nature during the transition to modern science is the loss of moral values and the sense of