Perceptions of science in the 20th century

A quote from a 20th century History of Science text:

"It is evident that, in the last two generations, there has been a basic change in the status of science. This has affected the whole spiritual climate in which we live. Until the twentieth century the main inner life of civilized societies had been supported, for thousands of years, by activities quite outside the realm of scientific ideas. It is true that for the last few hundred years, and notably since the mid-eighteenth century, science has sometimes come to the aid of industry and agriculture by raising production or otherwise bettering the human lot. But on the spiritual side, save among isolated groups, science did little to exercise the intellect or satisfy the hunger for knowledge, and even less to appeal to the sense of beauty.

In England, until the late nineteenth century, science hardly penetrated the educational system and is still not integrated with it. Science seldom attracted general public interest until the beginning of the twentieth century. The place of science in the older universities remained at best secondary, at worst precarious. Since then the resulting mass of real and applicable knowledge has changed every side of life. Having come to control and direct industry, it is now rapidly and manifestly transforming the very face of the earth and the lot of its living inhabitants, whether human, animal, or plant. A true history of science should end by discussing these latter-day metamorphoses. The last chapter must be a very long one and difficult to write." (Singer, 1959)

These are remarkable claims. How anyone can state that "science did little to exercise the intellect or satisfy the hunger for knowledge" during the Enlightenment is hard to comprehend. That "science has sometimes come to the aid of industry and agriculture" is an understatement for the industrial revolution. Maybe the most remarkable claim for a text that deals with the 18th and 19th centuries is that "raising production" is equivalent to "bettering the human lot."

Reference

Singer, C. (1959) A Short History of Scientific Ideas to 1900. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

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