The Social Function of Science

FOUR years ago a series of essays under the title “The Frustration of Science”, to which Prof. J. D. Bernal himself contributed one on “Science and Industry”, bore witness to the sense of social responsibility of individual scientific men at least, and to their concern at tendencies or forces which are preventing science from bringing its full benefits to mankind. Somewhat earlier, in “Scientific Research and Social Needs”, Prof. Julian Huxley gave a popular picture of the extent to which scientific advance is influencing every aspect of everyday life and a brief forecast of some of the further possibilities if we can lessen or close the wide gap still existing between scientific knowledge and its application to the needs of humanity. In the interval, Lord Stamp in “The Science of Social Adjustment” has outlined something of a programme for research on some of the urgent problems arising from the impact of science on society. The events in the year or more since the publication of the present volume was first announced have made it, if anything, even more timely. Besides the more widespread interest in the reaction of science on society and the social consequences of scientific discoveries, scientific workers have become aware that, for the first time since the Renaissance, science itself is in danger, and that political forces are threatening not merely the direction but even the existence of science.The Social Function of ScienceBy J. D. Bernal. Pp. xvi + 482. (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1939.) 2s. 6d. net.