Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.
Jacob BronowskiRead
It is not the business of science to inherit the earth, but to inherit the moral imagination; because without that, man and beliefs and science will perish together.
Interpretation
Science should focus on ethical considerations and the moral impact of its discoveries.
In this quote, Jacob Bronowski emphasizes that the role of science extends beyond mere acquisition of knowledge or dominance over the Earth. Instead, he argues that scientists must engage with moral imagination, as it is this ethical framework that ensures the survival of humanity's beliefs and the responsible application of scientific progress. Without such imagination, both scientific advancement and human values risk extinction.
In practice
During a seminar on the ethical implications of artificial intelligence.
Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.
There is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they are scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy.
To me the most interesting thing about man is that he is an animal who practices art and science and in every known society practices both together.
A man becomes creative, whether he is an artist or scientist, when he finds a new unity in the variety of nature. He does so by finding a likeness between things which were not thought alike before.
The values by which we are to survive are not rules for just and unjust conduct, but are those deeper illuminations in whose light justice and injustice, good and evil, means and ends are seen in fearful sharpness of outline.
The basis for poetry and scientific discovery is the ability to comprehend the unlike in the like and the like in the unlike.
Reality offers us such wealth that we must cut some of it out on the spot, simplify. The question is, do we always cut out what we should?
The continuous narrative of existence is a lie. There is no continuous narrative, there are lit-up moments, and the rest is dark. When you look closely, the twenty-four hour day is framed into a moment; the still-life of the jerky amphetamine world. That woman-a pieta. Those men, rough angels with an unknown message. The children holding hands, spanning time. And in every still-life, there is a story, the story that tells you everything you need to know.
One must care about a world one will not see.
Let Pascal say that man is a thinking reed. He is wrong; man is a thinking erratum. Each period in life is a new edition that corrects the preceding one and that in turn will be corrected by the next, until publication of the definitive edition, which the publisher donates to the worms.
Architecture, like dress, is an exercise in good manners, and good manners involve the habit of skillful insincerity - the habit of saying "good morning" to those whose mornings you would rather blight, and of passing the butter to those you would rather starve.
Nowhere in the world has the use of force alone resolved a conflict.
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