Kant
7. No two things are more divergent than science and profit, knowledge and money. If money is needed in order to become more learned, if learning is bought and sold for money, both the buyer and the seller deceive themselves. Qirist drove the traders out of the temple. So should the traders be driven out of the temple of science*
8. Do not look upon science as a crown to be admired, nor as a cow to be milked.
9. One of the most convincing proofs of the use of the word "science" to describe the niost trifling and repulsive ideas is the existence of a science of punishment, which is the most ignorant of human activities, proper only to the lowest phase of human development— infancy or savagery.
m.
Harmful Effects of the Si^erstition of Science
1. No clique of men has more confused ideas of reli-g^n, morals and life than the men of science: and even more striking is the fact that although science has achieved really ccmsiderable success in the domain of the material world, it has proved either useless or directly harmful in the lives of men.
2. Harmful is the spread of the belief among men that our life is the product of material forces and depends upon these forces. But when this belief assumes the name of science and passes for the sacred wisdom of mankind, the harm caused by such a belief is terrible.
3. The development of science does not go hand in hand with an improvement in morals. In all nations whose history we know the development of science led directly to a corruptiwi of morals. Our belief to the contrary is due to our confusing our banal and illusive science with the true supreme knowledge. Science in the abstract, science as such, demands respect, but modern science, that is what madmen call science, is worthy only of ridicule and con-**"Pt Rousseau.
4. The true explanation of the insane life of the people in the present age—so contrary to the thought of the
best men of all times—^is in the fact that our youth is taught a multitude of the most abstruse things: such as the state of celestial bodies, the condition of the globe for millions of years, the origin of the organism, but they are not taught the one thing needful to all and at all times: what is the meaning of human life, how to live, what the wisest men of all ages thought about it and how they solved the problem of life. The young generation is not taught all this, but is taught instead, under the name of science, the most arrant nonsense which even the teachers do not believe themselves. Instead of solid rock, the structure of our life rests on air-filled bubbles. How shall this structure escape a fall ?
5. All that we call science is merely an invention of rich men to occupy their idle time.
6. We live in an age of philosophy, science and reason. It seems as though all sciences had combined to illumine our path in the maze of human life. Immense libraries are open to alclass="underline" colleges, schools, universities give us an opportunity to make use of the wisdom of men accumulated in the course of thousands of years. It seems as though everything worked together to develop our mind and to strengthen our reason. Have we become better or wiser from it all ? Do we know better what our duties are, and what is most important, wherein lies the blessedness of life? What have we acquired from all this futile knowledge, besides enmity, hatred, uncertainty and doubts? Every religious teaching and sect proves that it alone has found the truth. Every writer demonstrates that he alone knows wherein consists our happiness. One proves to us that there IS no body. Another that there is no soul. A third one that there is no connection between ЬоЙу and soul Again another that man is an animal. And still anothe that God is merely a mirror. Rousseau,
7. The principal evil of modern science is in the fact that unable as it is to study everything, not knowing—without the aid of faith—what it ought to study, it delves only into things that please the men of science who lead a life of error.
The most pleasant thing for men of science is the existing social order, which is profitable to them, and the satisfaction of an idle curiosity which does not call for much mental effort
IV.
There is no Limit to the Number of Studies, But Man's Capacity of Comprehension is Limited
1. A Persian philosopher said: "When I was young, I said to myself I will fathom all science. And I acquired almost all the knowledge given to man. But when I became old and I reviewed all I had learned, I discovered that my life was over, but that I knew nothing."
2. The observations and calculations of astronomers have taught us much that is marvelous. But the most important result of these researches is that they have revealed to us the abyss of our ignorance. Without these studies man could never grasp the immensity of this abyss. Meditation on this subject should work a great transformation in the determining of the ultimate aims of the activity of our reason. Kant
3. "There are plants on earth: we see them, but they are invisible from the moon. In these plants there are fibres, in these fibres there are tiny living organisms, but beyond that there is nothing more." What cocksureness!
"G>mplex bodies are composed of elements, and elements are indissoluble." What cocksureness I
Pascal.
4. We lack knowledge even to understand the life of the human body. Consider what we require to know for it: the body requires space, time, motion, heat, light, food, water, air and many other things. In nature all these things are so closely associated that we cannot apprehend one of them without studying the others. We cannot know a part without knowing the whole. We shall know the life of our body only when we have learned all that it needs, and for this we must study the entire universe. But the universe is infinite, and its knowledge is unattainable to man. Therefore we cannot even fully fathom even the life of our body.
Pascal.
5. Experimental sciences, if pursued for their own sake without a guiding philosophical thought, are like a countenance without the eyes. They offer a form of occupation for men of average ability, but not gifted with supreme genius which would only be in the way in petty investigations. Men of such limited abilities concentrate all their powers and their knowledge upon a single well-defined scientific field where they can attain a fairly perfect knowledge while remaining entirely ignorant in every other direction. They may be compared with workmen in clock factories where some make only wheels, while others make springs and still others chains. Schopenhai$er.
6. Not the mass, but the quality of knowledge is of importance. It is possible to know many things, without knowing the essential things.
7. The study of natural history in Germany has reached the phase of madness. Although to God man and insect may be of equal value, it is different as far as our reason is concerned. How many things are there which man must first put in order before he can take up birds and
moths. Study your soul, train your mind to be cautious in judgment, instil mercy in your soul. Learn to know man and arm yourself with courage to speak the truth for the good of your fellow man. Sharpen your mind with mathematics if you can find no other means to attain the same end. But beware of classifying gnats, the superficial knowledge of which is utterly useless, and an exact knowledge of which would take you into infinity.
"But God is as infinite in insects as he is in the sun," you might say. I willingly admit this. He is immeasurable also in the sands of the sea, the varieties of which you have never undertaken to systematize. If you feel no particular calling to seek pearls in the lands where this sand is to be found, stay at home and cultivate your field: it will need all your industry; and do not forget that the capacity of your brain is finite. There where you preserve the history of some butterfly, space might be found for thoughts of wise men that may be an inspiration to you.