Science and Society: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

The recent 500th birthday anniversary of the great Polish cosmologist, Nicholas Copernicus, was the occasion for an important conference at the University of Michigan. In addition to elucidating the life and achievements of Copernicus, the conference explored the always stormy marriage of science and society, which also dates from the 15th century. Knoll's opening essay and Rhodes' postscript are excellent aids to learning about Copernicus, who was an educator, public official, economist, clergyman, and physician, as well as a pioneer scientist. Two principal concerns appear in several papers: first, that scientific or positivistic philosophy taken alone is not sufficient to sustain intellectual health,and second, that the humanities possess some very important concepts that have been neglected. This conference expresses little of the exasperated anger of some academicians for everything of science and technology. The speakers avoid the peculiar arguments of the popular antirationalist-antiempiricist philosophy as displayed by C. Reich, N.

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