{"id":1822,"date":"2013-09-24T17:56:14","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T21:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/?p=1822"},"modified":"2013-09-24T17:56:14","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T21:56:14","slug":"the-fear-of-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/2013\/09\/24\/the-fear-of-science\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fear of Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

As scientific advancement became increasingly prevalent in Europe after World War I, the elation and excitement that accompanied these developments was coupled with the fear and apprehension of certain members of that society. \u00a0One prominent voice to that effect was Bertrand Russell, who argued in Icarus, or, the Future of Science<\/em> that “science will be used to promote the power of dominant groups, rather than to make men happy.” (Russell) \u00a0The basis of Russell’s argument lies in his presupposition that people lack the strength of morals necessary to guide them as science allows for a more comfortable and efficient lifestyle. \u00a0Because men are “bundles of passions and instincts,” the power and expedience granted by cutting edge science and technology will lead to a tumultuous climate of animalistic power grabbing that will ultimately lead to the demise of European society. (Russell) \u00a0These apprehensions towards scientific study are further reflected in Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/em>, a German horror film about a mental asylum director who attempts to master the condition of somnabulism in order to manipulate its victims into carrying out his murderous ambitions.<\/p>\n

In order to fairly assess the validity of Russell’s argument, it is necessary to first make his aforementioned controversial presumption: “Men’s collective passions are mainly evil.” (Russell). \u00a0Russell was not alone in this position; even Carl Mayer & Hanz Janowitz created the fictional Dr. Caligari to be eventually driven insane by his\u00a0own desperate pursuit of knowledge for immoral purposes. (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/em>) To this end, it follows logically that because science will allow men to work toward these passions with greater expediency, it will thus accelerate the decline of society. \u00a0According to Russell, the most prominent of these evil passions is political self-interest, which could lead to absurd risk-taking in the name of competition and a narcissistic abuse of eugenics for the purpose of creating a society in the image of those in power.<\/p>\n

The primary caveat that I find in\u00a0Icarus\u00a0<\/em>is its near total lack of research. Russell even openly acknowledges at several points that his arguments are based upon conjecture (i.e. “I forget where I read this, but if my memory serves me it was in some reliable source”; “I am only suggesting possibilities which it may be instructive to consider”). (Russell) \u00a0Despite this, Russell’s piece and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/em>\u00a0are both still useful as images of the trepidation with which some Europeans regarded the increasingly rapid advances in the field of science after World War I.\u00a0
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Discussion Question: Do you think that the surrealist imagery (i.e. costumes, sets, art direction) in\u00a0The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari\u00a0<\/em>was an entirely aesthetic choice, or was it chosen specifically to support the message of the filmmakers?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As scientific advancement became increasingly prevalent in Europe after World War I, the elation and excitement that accompanied these developments was coupled with the fear and apprehension of certain members of that society. \u00a0One prominent voice to that effect was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1796,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51180],"tags":[85439,85440,85441,80585,85442,2829,85438,80588],"class_list":["post-1822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-bertrand-russell","tag-carl-mayer","tag-hanz-janowitz","tag-icarus","tag-robert-wiene","tag-science","tag-somnabulist","tag-the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}