Knowledge and Power

Abstract

THE question raised in the leading article on “Knowledge and Power” in NATURE of March 25 is of great interest and importance. It is nothing more nor less than the question of using experience as a guide to action, which is the whole purpose of education. The suggestion that its solution requires a fundamental change in the organisation of the Civil Services in order that the best advantage may be obtained for the country from the special knowledge and training of the expert brings to a focus the essential difficulty of the subject. I suppose that the real function of any Department of the Services, civil or military, is to carry out the policy of the Government as formulated or approved by the responsible Minister; and the staff of the Department is recruited in such a way as to secure that object. The knowledge in the light of which the Minister's policy is formed is another matter. It may be taken for granted that if it is well advised, the Government will utilise all the best technical knowledge available. A Minister may find it in special sections of his own Department, or he may try to acquire it from outside. No doubt he is largely guided by his chief permanent officers, and they in turn must use their own knowledge and that of their subordinates or obtain what they can get from outside. How effectively to provide a Minister with all the pertinent experience about technical problems is not an easy question. It is made still harder by the fact that even for experts the recognition of the value of new knowledge is not necessarily automatic. The reception that was given to Thomas Young's theory of light is a reminder for all time that new ideas require favourable environment for assimilation. Consequently, some knowledge of what the world is made of is necessary for all executive authorities. But that, as Kipling says, is another story.