Biology and Human Welfare

Abstract

SPEAKING at a conference at Newnham College, Cambridge, under the chairmanship of Mr. L. J. F. Brimble on August 8, Sir John Orr outlined his conception of the place of science in the post-war era. Pleading for a clearer vision of the great new world, he said: “What we need to go for in the new world is not the application of physical science for the production of goods to get money-power, but the application of biological science to build better men and a better society.” The first step in the new world must be the abolition of poverty, and we must concentrate on building men and women before we build new cities. Sir John expressed the view that the age which is now passing away is largely the age of physical science, with its inventions and discoveries, which have given us power over the forces of Nature. It is to be hoped that when this War is over the age of physical science will be replaced by an age of biological science-the study of life in all its manifestations. Reviewing some of the results of the age of physical science he pointed out that in spite of the new inventions and discoveries the standard of life up to 1840 or 1850 actually fell below what it was before. The reason was that instead of applying the new machines wisely men had applied them to produce goods to sell to get money. “It was not that men were individually bad,” he said, “but their whole background was bad. The fundamental ideal of the age was bad and, not only that, men did not even have the vision to see that this system must inevitably collapse, as it did during the War of 1914-1918.”