SCIENTIFIC
EDUCATION:
Huxley, who was a great champion of scientific
education, said “ The position that science is now assuming is such that those
who remain entirely ignorant of even its elementary facts are in a wholly
unfair position as regards the world of thoughts and the world of practical
life”. Science is the main ingredient in the scheme of liberal education
outlined by Huxley, “That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has
been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and
does with ease and pleasure all he work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of,
whose intellect is a clear, cold. Logic engine, with all its parts of equal
strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned
to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the
mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths
of nature and of the laws of her operation; one who, no stunted ascetic, is
full of life, but whose passions are trained to come to peel by a vigorous
will, the servant of a tender conscience, who has learnt to
love all beauty, whether of nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to
respect others as himself.” If science helps us in achieveing this, science
must form an integral part of modern liberal education; but if science does not
do this, we should dismiss it as mere weariness of the flesh, a jejune
insanity. Scientific education gives us a clear and deep insight into the
nature of reality of things. Wonderful changes in the world are due simply to
the application of scientific knowledge. Scientific discoveries and inventions,
modern achievements and researches have increased our comfort and happiness,
peace and prosperity. The Europeans are civilized people simply because they
have benefited themselves from the scientific education. Their secret of
success is due to this fact. Scientific knowledge makes people utilize the
natural resources of their country and reveals the whole mystery of nature.
Literature acquaints us with the thoughts, feelings, ideals and aspirations of
others, but science makes us students of Nature. It enable us to see the sight of
Nature with our eyes wide open, hear the sounds with our ears open, and to be
thrilled by its beauty. The beauties and wonders of mountains, the glories of
the sky studded with stars, and the marvels of animals and plants are laid
before our eyes. The lilies and the roses do not only appeal to us for their
inexpressible beauty, but also give us messages too deep for thoughts. Every
flowers is an object lesson in the power and wisdom of God. Says Lord Avebury, “Without botany we may
admire a great man or a beautiful woman in a crowd, but it is as strangers. The
botanist, on the contrary , when he goes out into the woods or into one of
those fairy forests which we call fields, finds, finds himself welcomed by a
glad company of friends, every one of which has something interesting to tell.”
What is true of botany is true of other branches of science as well. But the
abuse of scientific knowledge is harmful to humanity. The Great World war shows
how terrible a weapon for the destruction of life and property it may be come
by its being used for greed and ambition. Mere scientific knowledge affords us
material or worldly comfort, but it does not give us spiritual knowledge,
rather it leads us far away from the right path. The right feelings of the
heart, the noble virtues of righteousness and charms of life are all best
touched by or come under the scope of literature. This is not the work of
science. Each branch of study thus supplements the other, and each renders us
substantial help in attaining to a comprehensive understanding of the whole.
Those who are eager to establish the superiority of scientific education over the literacy, by
pointing to the wonders of scientific invention and by dilating on the material
comforts which the sciences have conferred on us, fail to recognize the truth
that these discoveries and inventions of science cannot make men happy without
purer and noble moral forces and impulses to control and regulate them. Those,
again, who belittle the importance of these discoveries and inventions as being
materialistic, forget that a deeper knowledge of the mysteries of physical
nature gives us a truer insight into the unity that underlies diversity in
Nature. Physicists by increasing their knowledge of so-called “matter” have
been led to doubt its really, and have dematerialized the atom and with it the
entire universe which the various atoms compose. The trinity of matter, ether
and electricity, out of which science has hitherto attempted to construct the
world, has been reduced to a single element_ the ether (which is not scientific
“matter”) in a state of motion. That the mind and sense are also quasimaterial
has the support of some forms of Western philosophy such as that of Herbert Spencer, for be holds that the
universe, whether physical or psychical, is a play of force which in the case
of matter we experience as object. We affirm that scientific “matter” is an
appearance produced by the play of cosmic force, and that mind itself is a
product of the same play.
Title : Scientific Education Essay
Description : SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: Huxley, who was a great champion of scientific education, said “ The position that science is now assuming is such ...
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