Word: truthful
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...common man the scientist is the authoritative master of a truth and a power to salvation. Here lies the key to well-being on this earth. It will win a war, improve education and morals...
...purest of the pure scientists, the theoretical physicists, who, in their possession of the truth of science, are also the administrators of the most terrible power of science in nuclear energy. Both the truth and the power lie in the hands of an elite within the order...
...priestly caste, its very possession of the truth and the power unto salvation is a temptation to spiritual pride. Both religion and science are disposed to make a claim to infallibility. [But] the most virtuous priest may have his virtue corrupted by stupidity and ignorance, and the most intelligent scientist may have his wisdom distorted by pride and arrogance and the lust for personal prestige...
...temporal power which befalls the scientist is unlike that which troubled the priesthood in the classical theocracies. Ordinarily it is not proposed that the scientist should assume full and final authority in government. But so far as the scientist has pre-eminent prestige as the guardian of the truth and the power, his blessing will always be sought for a new cold cream or a fresh departure in foreign policy or an innovation in military technology. In most cases, judgment of the worth of the enterprise lies entirely outside the competence of the scientist as such...
...into three errors with reference to public affairs. He may, like the medieval anchorite, withdraw from society by living in the cell which is his laboratory. Or, emerging from his cell, with its austere discipline and chaste aspirations, he will be profoundly shocked to see the way his own truth and power are prostituted to ends with which he cannot become reconciled. He will then do like all pietists before him: propose simple solutions to complex problems, see all issues naively and out of context, and make absolute moral judgments where the need is for shrewd compromise...