Unit 2
Science and Human Life
Introduction
Science has completely changed the man’s way of living. Our life today is drastically different from our forefathers. Even a few decades ago man was largely at the mercy of nature. But science has enhanced man’s power over nature. In fact, science has provided us with so many amenities of life. Science has made our life comfortable.
Summary
Science has made our life immensely better than what it was in the past. Science has revolutionaries’ agriculture and now it is possible for us to grow more food. In fact, we dress ourselves in a better manner than our forefathers. Our houses, towns and villages are also now better places to live in. in fact, all the basic requirements of life are now easily fulfilled by utilization of scientific knowledge.
We do not travel long distances on foot to meet our relatives or friends. We can now easily go to any place we like. Travelling, whether by land, sea or air is now very comfortable. Similarly, we do not have to depend on a candle or an oil-lamp to remove the darkness at night. Electricity now works wonders for us.
Science has prolonged the span of life. It has reduced infant mortality rate. It has also enabled us to fight with different deadly diseases. The physicians and the surgeons are now in an advanced position in the matter of diagnosis of diseases and their treatment. Thus, science plays a great role both in health and in sickness.
Science has enabled us to do a lot of work in a short time and with very little physical strain. Number of machines have been invented to do various unpleasant and difficult jobs for us. Now we don’t have to do manual work. The gramophone, the radio, the tape-recorder, the television, the mobile phone and the cinema have made our life pleasant. Science has offered the world greater well-being than it has ever known.
Science has brought different nations close to one another. A person sitting in one country can now communicate easily and instantly with the other person in another country. We can also receive updates of different countries no matter in which country we are in.
The contribution of science to the cause of human welfare is miraculous and with the advancement of science man feels that he is the master of things in the universe. There have been revolutionary effects of science and technology. Bertrand Russell has also pointed out that there are also many negative aspects of scientific innovation.
The population all over the globe is increasing at the fast pace. Meanwhile, the food supply of the world as a whole threatens to diminish because of the unwise methods of cultivation and destruction of forests. This will ultimately lead to food shortage. The danger of shortage of food all over the world may be averted for a time by improvements in the technique of agriculture.
The science has also developed medicines which diminishes the deaths and also the births. Resultantly, the average age in the Western countries has increased. There is a smaller percentage of young people and a larger percentage of old people. If the population continues to increase at the present rate then the shortage of food worldwide is most likely to happen. Then there will be two groups existing on the Earth; the poor with an increasing population and the rich with a stationery population. The need of the raw materials is more questionable than the availability of the food itself because the need of raw materials at one stage maybe different and varies in quantity in another stage.
Conclusion
Thus, science can develop our life-system through reducing poverty from all over the world. It can also reduce the manual work and the total number of working hours. It has added prosperity to mankind. It has also invented many medicines for deadly diseases which helped in the reduction of death rates. It has mainly contributed in the agricultural sector because of which the raw materials and the food can be exported and imported as well.
Kew takeaways:
1. Science has made our life better.
2. Science has reduced poverty reasonably.
3. Science has developed machines and medicines.
4. Now, export is also possible easily.
Introduction
Under the pseudonym of Y.Y., Robert Lynd contributed literary essays weekly to the New Statesman magazine from 1913 to 1945. ‘The Pleasure of Ignorance’ is one of those many essays. In this essay, we have the theme of discovery, learning, ignorance, confusion and inquisitiveness.
Summary
When a person is ignorant, he will become confused by the information that they are trying to learn. This is a part of human nature. Learning things for the first time requires memory and for Lynd his memory is weak. However, this does not stop him from continuing to learn. But lynd has a natural inquisitiveness. It is this inquisitiveness or urge to learn that excites Lynd and makes his life more enjoyable. Some critics suggest that there is still a willingness among individuals to learn all that they want. However, there are some men who may feel more knowledgeable than others.
In this essay, Lynd suggests that ignorance is a part and parcel of life. Everyone is ignorant in some way. A Physician, for example, may not have the same knowledge as a Dentist nor the Lawyer has the same knowledge as the farmer. People from every profession is willing to learn something new. For, this gives them pleasure or joy. They may forget what they have learnt but still they pursue the path of learning. The best way to learn is by reading on the particular subject or making observations on the matter. Lynd, thus, tells that man will always have some degree of ignorance and should not frown upon it. Rather the newly learnt matter should be embraced.
It may also be a case that Lynd is suggesting that man will never fully know everything and will remain in some way ignorant of their subject matter. An individual cannot be expected to know everything. They may be experts but they still find joy from discovering something new.
Lynd chose cuckoo as his subject to illustrate the ordinary man’s ignorance. It is also because, passing the spring in a parish seem to have been invaded by all the cuckoos of Africa. The author is unaware of many things that existed, but was unknown author like the Sun and the moon and some flowers too. The author once heard a clever lady asking whether the new moon always appears on the same day of the week. She added that perhaps it is better not to know, because, if one does not know when or in what part of the sky it is to be expected, its appearance is always a pleasant surprise. Despite being aware of the cycle of the nature, nature-observers do feel surprised to see the announcement of spring and some such events. Even the first blossom of flowers overwhelms a nature lover even if they know about its coming before-hand.
The more the naturalist is ignorant of nature, the more mysterious it appears to him. He might have studied about nature quite extensively, yet he yearns to experience their touch and sound. The way a cuckoo lays eggs on the ground, and then carries them up to its nest seems fascinating, when it is observed first-hand. In the nest, the cuckoo maintains a strict and long vigil over her eggs. This may also prove or doesn’t prove the fact that the cuckoo lays or does not lay eggs on the ground.
After the bird-watcher becomes sure that the cuckoo does lay eggs on the ground, he has to ascertain if all the eggs were of the same colour or not. The scientific community even do not have answer to this question, but they do not seem to worry much about it.
Many intellectuals also appear to be ignorant of certain facts of life. A British author was once asked to name the most important crop of England, he replied it was Rye. Ignorance is pervasive in the society. Whether learned or illiterate, everyone suffers from the ignorance. Common man use telephone, railways, printing press, etc on their daily lives but they are ignorant of how these technologies work. However, many common men even do not know the number of gadgets that are used in daily life. Those who want to expand their knowledge by learning about other things are ridiculed as being ‘showy’.
Socrates is admired so much not only because people accepted him as someone knowing everything, but because at the age of 70 he declared that he was totally ignorant. Such humility was a sign of greatness.
Conclusion
Ignorance is pervasive in society. In fact, ignorance is bliss because it triggers the person to search for the knowledge. There are some lazy people who don’t like to exert their mind to acquire new knowledge. He chose Cuckoo as his subject to explain this.
Kew takeaways:
1. Ignorance should be bliss.
2. Search for more knowledge.
References
1. The Impact of Science on Society by Bertrand Russell – Hassan Kamal
2. The Impact of Science on Society by Bertrand Russell – Routledge (1951)
3. “Science and Human Life” by Bertrand Russell
Unit 2
Science and Human Life
Introduction
Science has completely changed the man’s way of living. Our life today is drastically different from our forefathers. Even a few decades ago man was largely at the mercy of nature. But science has enhanced man’s power over nature. In fact, science has provided us with so many amenities of life. Science has made our life comfortable.
Summary
Science has made our life immensely better than what it was in the past. Science has revolutionaries’ agriculture and now it is possible for us to grow more food. In fact, we dress ourselves in a better manner than our forefathers. Our houses, towns and villages are also now better places to live in. in fact, all the basic requirements of life are now easily fulfilled by utilization of scientific knowledge.
We do not travel long distances on foot to meet our relatives or friends. We can now easily go to any place we like. Travelling, whether by land, sea or air is now very comfortable. Similarly, we do not have to depend on a candle or an oil-lamp to remove the darkness at night. Electricity now works wonders for us.
Science has prolonged the span of life. It has reduced infant mortality rate. It has also enabled us to fight with different deadly diseases. The physicians and the surgeons are now in an advanced position in the matter of diagnosis of diseases and their treatment. Thus, science plays a great role both in health and in sickness.
Science has enabled us to do a lot of work in a short time and with very little physical strain. Number of machines have been invented to do various unpleasant and difficult jobs for us. Now we don’t have to do manual work. The gramophone, the radio, the tape-recorder, the television, the mobile phone and the cinema have made our life pleasant. Science has offered the world greater well-being than it has ever known.
Science has brought different nations close to one another. A person sitting in one country can now communicate easily and instantly with the other person in another country. We can also receive updates of different countries no matter in which country we are in.
The contribution of science to the cause of human welfare is miraculous and with the advancement of science man feels that he is the master of things in the universe. There have been revolutionary effects of science and technology. Bertrand Russell has also pointed out that there are also many negative aspects of scientific innovation.
The population all over the globe is increasing at the fast pace. Meanwhile, the food supply of the world as a whole threatens to diminish because of the unwise methods of cultivation and destruction of forests. This will ultimately lead to food shortage. The danger of shortage of food all over the world may be averted for a time by improvements in the technique of agriculture.
The science has also developed medicines which diminishes the deaths and also the births. Resultantly, the average age in the Western countries has increased. There is a smaller percentage of young people and a larger percentage of old people. If the population continues to increase at the present rate then the shortage of food worldwide is most likely to happen. Then there will be two groups existing on the Earth; the poor with an increasing population and the rich with a stationery population. The need of the raw materials is more questionable than the availability of the food itself because the need of raw materials at one stage maybe different and varies in quantity in another stage.
Conclusion
Thus, science can develop our life-system through reducing poverty from all over the world. It can also reduce the manual work and the total number of working hours. It has added prosperity to mankind. It has also invented many medicines for deadly diseases which helped in the reduction of death rates. It has mainly contributed in the agricultural sector because of which the raw materials and the food can be exported and imported as well.
Kew takeaways:
1. Science has made our life better.
2. Science has reduced poverty reasonably.
3. Science has developed machines and medicines.
4. Now, export is also possible easily.
Introduction
Under the pseudonym of Y.Y., Robert Lynd contributed literary essays weekly to the New Statesman magazine from 1913 to 1945. ‘The Pleasure of Ignorance’ is one of those many essays. In this essay, we have the theme of discovery, learning, ignorance, confusion and inquisitiveness.
Summary
When a person is ignorant, he will become confused by the information that they are trying to learn. This is a part of human nature. Learning things for the first time requires memory and for Lynd his memory is weak. However, this does not stop him from continuing to learn. But lynd has a natural inquisitiveness. It is this inquisitiveness or urge to learn that excites Lynd and makes his life more enjoyable. Some critics suggest that there is still a willingness among individuals to learn all that they want. However, there are some men who may feel more knowledgeable than others.
In this essay, Lynd suggests that ignorance is a part and parcel of life. Everyone is ignorant in some way. A Physician, for example, may not have the same knowledge as a Dentist nor the Lawyer has the same knowledge as the farmer. People from every profession is willing to learn something new. For, this gives them pleasure or joy. They may forget what they have learnt but still they pursue the path of learning. The best way to learn is by reading on the particular subject or making observations on the matter. Lynd, thus, tells that man will always have some degree of ignorance and should not frown upon it. Rather the newly learnt matter should be embraced.
It may also be a case that Lynd is suggesting that man will never fully know everything and will remain in some way ignorant of their subject matter. An individual cannot be expected to know everything. They may be experts but they still find joy from discovering something new.
Lynd chose cuckoo as his subject to illustrate the ordinary man’s ignorance. It is also because, passing the spring in a parish seem to have been invaded by all the cuckoos of Africa. The author is unaware of many things that existed, but was unknown author like the Sun and the moon and some flowers too. The author once heard a clever lady asking whether the new moon always appears on the same day of the week. She added that perhaps it is better not to know, because, if one does not know when or in what part of the sky it is to be expected, its appearance is always a pleasant surprise. Despite being aware of the cycle of the nature, nature-observers do feel surprised to see the announcement of spring and some such events. Even the first blossom of flowers overwhelms a nature lover even if they know about its coming before-hand.
The more the naturalist is ignorant of nature, the more mysterious it appears to him. He might have studied about nature quite extensively, yet he yearns to experience their touch and sound. The way a cuckoo lays eggs on the ground, and then carries them up to its nest seems fascinating, when it is observed first-hand. In the nest, the cuckoo maintains a strict and long vigil over her eggs. This may also prove or doesn’t prove the fact that the cuckoo lays or does not lay eggs on the ground.
After the bird-watcher becomes sure that the cuckoo does lay eggs on the ground, he has to ascertain if all the eggs were of the same colour or not. The scientific community even do not have answer to this question, but they do not seem to worry much about it.
Many intellectuals also appear to be ignorant of certain facts of life. A British author was once asked to name the most important crop of England, he replied it was Rye. Ignorance is pervasive in the society. Whether learned or illiterate, everyone suffers from the ignorance. Common man use telephone, railways, printing press, etc on their daily lives but they are ignorant of how these technologies work. However, many common men even do not know the number of gadgets that are used in daily life. Those who want to expand their knowledge by learning about other things are ridiculed as being ‘showy’.
Socrates is admired so much not only because people accepted him as someone knowing everything, but because at the age of 70 he declared that he was totally ignorant. Such humility was a sign of greatness.
Conclusion
Ignorance is pervasive in society. In fact, ignorance is bliss because it triggers the person to search for the knowledge. There are some lazy people who don’t like to exert their mind to acquire new knowledge. He chose Cuckoo as his subject to explain this.
Kew takeaways:
1. Ignorance should be bliss.
2. Search for more knowledge.
References
1. The Impact of Science on Society by Bertrand Russell – Hassan Kamal
2. The Impact of Science on Society by Bertrand Russell – Routledge (1951)
3. “Science and Human Life” by Bertrand Russell
