Scientists in Society
THIS is a book which can only be read with difficulty and effort, in spite of the importance of the subject and the formidable qualifica- tions of the author. It consists of a set of essays, some long, some short, written between 1928 and the present day, and centring mainly on a single theme—the relation of scientists to society and political organisation. The long essay from which the title is derived was published in Horizon, in 1942; others have previously appeared in other periodicals or as lectures or -broadcasts. Books so composed are usually unsatisfactory, but this one is indigestible for other reasons also, above all because of a monumental heaviness of style and the constant repetition of a few familiar propositions in almost every chapter. Professor Bernal, unlike most of his contemporaries, seems to have consistently adhered to one set of governing political convictions from 1928 until the present day ; this consistency leads to a deadening repetition in a book of reprinted essays, in every one of which his main political convictions appropriately reappear.
His first proposition, occurring on almost every page, is that scientific research does not take place "in a social vacuum," which nature particularly abhors ; but then nothing does. "Goodness is purely social." "When society changes, goodness must change too." "Beauty is 'a social attitude ', ' and there is "the beauty of socially created forms," or "inherent in the common social enjoyment of things." Owing to the all-anbracing use of the word "social," this first proposition is not as-Informative as it might seem. The second is that under modern conditions scientific research can only be free and efficient if it is to some degree centrally, but democratically, planned and organised. The third, closely related to the second, is that we are at the beginning of 4 period in which economic and social problems can be, and must be, solved by the application of scientific techniques, such as operational research, under the direction of a controlling and planning Government.
On both these points Professor Bernal, particularly when drawing illustrations from his war-time experiences, is often authoritative and relatively precise - and no non-scientist is really in a position to contradict him about the first of them. But it is surely a plain matter of observation that, in the U.S.S.R. no less than in the United States and Western Europe, it is the precise balance between central planning and obstinate originality and heterodoxy which is now in dispute among scientists themselves. These seem to be delicate questions of degree, depending on differences of subject-matter and individual temperament, which cannot be settled by generalities of the kind which predominate in this book. The problem of the relation of the scientist to the government, of the best balance between freedom and organisation in science, is now everywhere recognised as one of the primary problems, and these essays show how much Professor Bernal's initiative and authority have in the past contributed to its recognition ; but at this stage they can add little towards its clarification, because they are so unempirical and general. It is surprising that eminent natural scientists, when they come to write about politics and the social sciences, are sometimes content with vague and unverifiable generalities of a kind which they would contemptuously expel from their own science.
The last section consists of "Marxist studies." These repetitions of Marx seem very unmarxist in spirit and method ; for no one has equalled the master in ridicule of the servile application of old revolutionary ideas to changed conditions and he would surely be astonished that anyone should still take the faithful Engels
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