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Special Essay

Science and technology as engine of national development

Prof. Dr Jamal Nazrul Islam
I have been involved in research and teaching, in mathematical and theoretical physics, for almost four decades, and lived abroad for many years, over twenty years in the UK and about five in the US. 1 returned to Bangladesh permanently in 1984. Apart from purely scientific matters, I have some interest in social problems, national, regional and global, and over the years I have developed a certain point of view and 1 would like to share some thoughts, for what they are worth, with readers about some of these matters.
Let me give a brief summary'. I will discuss the relevance of science and technology' for development and issues such as basic versus applied science and some other aspects of education. I will talk about negative effects of science and suggestions for dealing with these. 1 will mention certain -social problems, such as the gap between the rich and the poor, injustice in society' and human conflict. An important pan of this presentation will consist of extracts from writings of distinguished scientists and other prominent men, which express in various ways their views of nature and the world and such matters that are worth pondering over. Some of these excerpts, but not all, I have mentioned in my earlier writings, from which I will take the liberty of drawing other material. One of the basic themes running through the discussion will be how to pro-mote development and enhance harmony in society to ensure a better future for all. I have no definitive solutions, but only humble suggestions.
It is truism to say that the application of science and technology' can help the developing countries to eradicate poverty; hunger and disease and raise the standard of living of the people. Thus it is well-known that modern agricultural methods can improve the yields of crops, modern medi-
cine can check the prevalence of disease, and advanced communication networks can help improve the infrastructure that is needed in administering these developments, and so on. In principle all these are possible. but in practice many difficulties arise. Lack of education, apathy, inefficiency, etc are well known obstacles to progress in any field.
In any enterprise such as the application of science and technology’ for development, one needs the collective and strong will of the nation, with a nucleus of highly motivated and capable individuals who are supported fully by the society, government and the nation.
Partly for these difficulties, scientific and technological development cannot be seen in isolation, but must be seen as a part of economic, political, cultural, moral and intellectual development, which are all dependent on each other.
After this brief excursion into generalities, I want to consider some more specific points, such as the question of basic or fundamental as opposed to applied science, and would like to emphasize the need to promote basic science in the Third World, as well as applied science.
This point has been made in the past by Prof Abdus Salam, among others. In this connection I would like to quote the following portion from the Draft National Science and Technology Policy of Bangladesh published by the Science and Technology Division of the Government of Bangladesh in 1985. I believe this is still relevant today:
"While in a shattered economy like ours goal-oriented research will continue to be emphasized, a certain proportion of basic research must also be carried out in the Universities, Research and Development Organizations and other enterprises because it provides solid foundation to applied research and development. This type of research will be carried out by those with
originality and innovativeness of a high order. Successful accomplishment of basic research results in the creation of manpower imbued with great intellectual quality, self-confidence and the ability to find new and innovative solutions to problems."
Basic and applied science complement each other. It is sometimes said that today's basic science is tomorrow's applied science. Let me give a couple of examples of the connection of basic with applied science. We use various forms of energy’ in our daily life, such as electricity’ in households. This is usually produced by some fuel, which produces energy’ through chemical reactions (such as burning) in which the outer electrons of atoms take part. An atom consists of a nucleus made of neutrons and protons, around which the electrons revolve. The nucleus is small and tightly bound, the electrons move in large and loosely bound orbits. The mass of the atom resides essentially in the nucleus, but the diameter of the atom is about a hundred thousand times larger than that of the nucleus. In one centimeter one can place about a hundred million atoms next to each other. Now it takes about a million times more energy’ to detach a neutron or a proton from the nucleus than it does to detach an electron from the atom. From this basic scientific fact we can surmise that from the same amount of suitable material one can get about a million times more nuclear energy’ than fuel energy. Of course production of nuclear energy must be made cheap and completely safe, problems which have been partially solved and are being considered both by theoretical and experimental physicists.
The second example is so called superconductivity. It has been known for many decades that if the temperature of some metals is lowered below a certain point, the electric resistance disappears almost completely, which is then called a
state of superconductivity. Until 1986 the temperature of the superconductors was fairly low and not so useful practically. In the last decade new superconductors have been found with high room temperature. If this trend continues and if superconductivity can be created at ordinary room temperature, this will have enormous significance for the energy industry, because one will be able to send electricity over vast distances at much reduced cost. The theoretical explanation of high temperature superconductivity is a difficult problem; the person who finds the answer will be fortunate. The scientists who found the phenomenon experimentally (Profs. G. Bednorz
and K. A. Muller) were awarded the Nobel Prize.
Basic science is used increasingly in modern engineering. In many engineering projects the leaders have to know not only some basic science, but also economics and some social science. A writer makes the following comment about modern engineering:
“The need for men who can view engineering, wide and complex as it is, as a single field of operation with relatively few basic laws and
methods is increasingly recognized. Such men can work well with people from other disciplines and, when they gain sufficient experience and judgment, can successfully plan and direct vast enter-
prises."
The importance of basic theoretical understanding in practical applications emerges also in the work of John Maynard Keynes, one of the leading economists of the century. In the preface of his famous book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, he says:
“This book is chiefly addressed to my fellow economists. 1 hope that it will be intelligible to others. But its main purpose is to deal with difficult questions of theory, and only in the second place with the applications of this theory to practice."
Notwithstanding the emphasis on theory, or perhaps because of it, the book has had an enormous influence.
One of the obstacles to good scientific research in Bangladesh as in many Third World countries is the poor quality of science education in schools and colleges. There is little effort to impart to the students a true understanding of basic scientific principles. The students are not encour-aged to find out and work out things by themselves they usually get the material by heart and reproduce it in the examination. This reflects the poor quality of the teachers themselves. I believe if the teachers are exposed to a modi-cum of basic scientific research, this will improve the quality of their teaching, thereby contributing to good science education in schools and colleges.
The M. Phil, degree is particularly suitable for Bangladesh as there are many college teachers and some university teachers for whom the Ph. D. degree, for various reasons, is not suitable, whereas they are quite capable of or could avail of doing an M. Phil, degree and
would benefit greatly from doing it. At the same time, an attempt should be made, wherever possible, to introduce and maintain a Ph. D. programme. The attainment of a Ph. D degree by a member of a university department or any institution should be looked upon as a cooperative achievement of the whole institution which, apart from personal advancement of the degree holder, enhances research and academic activities generally, and contributes to a basic function of any academic institution: the pursuit of truth and knowledge for the benefit of society and of mankind.
In Bangladesh, because of various problems that have arisen in state educational systems, private universities and colleges have a role to play in education. However, 1 believe the bulk of mainstream education, at all levels, must be provided by the state. The following excerpt from Adam Smith may be relevant (quoted by Amartya Sen in his Development as Freedom) in which he expresses "his frus-
tration at the parsimony of public expenditure in the field of education”:
“For a very' small expense the publick can facilitate, can encourage, and can even impose upon almost the whole body of the people, the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts of education.”
Private colleges and universities can play an important supporting role to state institutions. Both state and private academic institutions should be under the “umbrella" of some central authority such as the Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission, and there could be regular meetings and discussions to create and main-
tain an appropriate balance. An important aspect is that private academic institutions should be conscious that they exist not just for an affluent section of society, but they should make every attempt to be of genuine service to the whole academic community and society by providing scholarships to indigent students, library facilities to all students and interested public, holding regular seminars on matters of general interest, etc. There are. of course, financial constraints and some of these activities may be taking place already, but these considerations may be kept in mind. I am sure efforts are being made in this direction, but further steps could be taken to make the cooperation between state and private education sectors more effective and meaningful.
As regards M. Phil, and Ph. D. degrees, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the University Grants Commission
many of the societies of the Third World. I do not simply mean things like nuclear weapons. which are obviously a threat to the whole of mankind, but more mundane things, such as the proliferation of automobiles in the advanced countries, with the concomitant pollution and nervous strain and road deaths. Another example is the unprecedented increase in mindless television and video programmes, which is a direct result of technical advance. There are many such examples of so-called scientific development which would be, and in some cases already are, harmful for our societies."
Let me now add a few somewhat pessimistic remarks, first by the late Nobel Laureate radio astronomer Sir Martin Ryle:
“Our world is one-yet evolution has now reached the stage where as a species we may soon die... We, as scientists should be able to see this more clearly than most and must use our influence to change the too limited aspirations of governments.”
The following is a quote from Bertrand Russell
"So long as national states exist and fight each other, only inefficiency can preserve the human race. To improve the fighting quality of separate states without having any means of preventing war is the road to universal destruction."
One of the starkest examples of what Russell had in mind is, presumably, the existence of nuclear weapons, which can destroy humanity many times over. Although scientists are not. in the main, responsible for this state of affairs, I believe.
and similar bodies can extend their support by increasing scholarships; the private sector can also help, either as a service to the country' or through collaborative projects between research groups and industry. The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research have played important roles in Research and Development for decades. There is room and need for further improvement. Il is very important, in the various research groups, in addition to providing the appropriate facilities, to maintain a relaxed and congenial research environment, in which there is a spirit of cooperation for pursuing truth and knowledge and suitable applications to benefit society, rather than competition for personal advancement.
At the Second General Conference of the Third World Academy of Sciences held in Beijing, China in 1987, the late Prof. Abdus Salam made the following remarks:
"I had the privilege of meeting Chairman Deng last year, when 1 came to China for preparations of this meeting. I was deeply impressed by his insistence on science transfer in addition to technology transfer. He remarked that the science of today is the technology of tomorrow, and that China and theThird World must build tomorrow's science for tomorrow's technology. In this respect, we of the Third World Academy of Sciences follow Chairman Deng's lead in humble way."
Prof. Salam went on to explain the main purpose of the meeting:
"... to honour the recent achievements of scientists of the South, by making presti-
gious awards in the basic sciences of Physics, Chemistry, Biology' and Mathematics: to listen to them..."
"... to reflect on the growing gap in sciences between the South and the North which, in our view, is the real reason behind the disparity in economic well-being and influence.”
"It is a sad fact that the South, while it spends similar proportions of its GNP on defence, education and health as the North, does not spend more than one twelfth of the proportionate amount on science and technology. To highlight this, let us remember that if, like the North, the South was to spend 4% of its educational budget on basic sciences, this would amount to 3.5 billion dollars to be used for building up self-reliant basic sciences in the South. We shall be pleading for the allocation of 4% of the educational budget for basic sciences from the leadership of the South."
"... (A) most important reason for our being here in this beautiful city of Beijing is to study Chinese science in depth. As we all know, China was the world leader in creative technology until about 1600. Since 1949, it has had a state policy of enhancing science which has enabled China to increase its researchers' population from 500 in 1949 to 300000 in 1985 — an incredible growth factor of 1:600 in 36 years, with a high impact on China's development!"
The enormous growth factor', because of China's size and situation, is, of course, unrealistic for Bangladesh, but the emphasis on science is important. I remember the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, Prof, lu Jiaxi, gave the following reasons for China's success in
science: "Self-reliance and collective spirit". This could well be emulated in Bangladesh.
It is well-known that there are some negative aspects of science and technology, which arise from their misuse. I wrote some years ago:
"It is clear even to the casual observer that a certain aspect of science has been highly successful. We have television, jet airliners, space
travel, and the many advances in medicine. The list is endless and well-known. As is also well-known, science and technology have brought in their wake weapons of destruction on an unprecedented scale which have raised acute political, social and moral problems, as well as purely scientific ones. The tackling of these problems presumably require considerations other than purely
scientific ones; in other words, the advance of science and technology has given rise to problems which cannot be solved by scientists alone. Even in the putative beneficial aspects of science there are problems. Technical developments have caused a proliferation of consumer and luxury items far beyond the needs of society, with consequent depletion of the ---- and valuable resources of
the planet and concomitant danger to the environment, not to mention the dehumanizing effect of the ethos of the consumer society'.
One of the things 1 want to stress is that we must get away from the idea of catching up with the First or the Second World. There are many aspects of the advanced world, which are direct results of technological innovations, which 1 believe are or would be undesirable for
as Ryle implies, they cannot be absolved completely from their responsibility in this matter. Ryle’s remark reminds us of the two world wars in which, at every' stage, the governments involved thought they w'ere following the right steps, leading eventually, to what the sociologists would call 'unintended consequences of purposive action'. Over fifty million innocent people around the w orld lost their lives! I
believe this could happen again, in regions including the Indian subcontinent. Ryle's message seems to be that we must not allow this to happen again. There appears to be a Frankenstein in human beings, which surfaces now and then, which we must learn to recognise and control. It is almost as if we are pawns at the hands of some malevolent deity, playing out a sort of Hessian "glass bead game" turned sinister!
Erwin Schrodinger, one of * the founders of quantum mechanics (with Werner Heisenberg and Paul Dirac), regretted the dichotomy that appears to exist in what he calls "two paths, that of the heart and that of pure reason". In a perceptive analysis of Greek civilisaton.hesays:
"... it is my opinion that the philosophy of the ancient Greeks attracts us at this moment, because never before or since, anywhere in the world, has anything like their highly advanced and articulated system of knowledge and speculation been established without the fateful division which has hampered us for centuries and has become unendurable in our days."
Here Schrodinger is implying the unity of knowledge, and indeed the unity of all human activity, and the fact that different approaches to the truth and fulfillment of human life that appear to be contradictory' are > in fact complementary'.
Schrodinger goes on to say
"It was still agreed that the true subject was essentially one, and that important conclusions reached about any part of it could, and as a result would, bear on almost every other pan".
In a famous speech in Athens in 1964, Heisenberg says
The search for the one’, for the final source of understanding. has probably been the origin both of religion and of science."
He ends his speech with the following sentence, which is significant coming from a great scientist:
"If harmony in a society depends on the common interpretation of the one’, of the
unity behind the multitude of phenomena, the language of the poet may be more important than that of the scientist."
Richard Feynman, a leading physicist of 20th century, says "The highest form of understanding we can achieve is laughter and human compassion."
It is interesting that Feynman says this after a lifetime spent in examining the most intricate problems of mathematics and physics. "Laughter and human compassion" are not usually regarded as "forms of understanding"! Perhaps Feynman is expressing his discomfort about too much "cerebralisation" or what might be called "intellectualisation”. One is reminded of the fact that some of the greatest moral teachers, such as the Buddha, Confucius and Socrates never left behind any writings.
We should recognise that apart from the role of basic and fundamental research to support the science and technology that is needed to improve living conditions, there is another side which helps to ameliorate the negative aspects. It is said that man does not live by bread alone. Improving living standards is not an end in itself but a means to an end. The latter is a life that is fulfilled and complete in every way. One of the noblest pursuits of man over the ages is seeking of truth and knowledge-knowledge about life, and one's surroundings and about the universe that we inhabit. Fundamental and basic research adds to the quality of life by making us aware and perceptive of the multifarious and diverse nature of the world and the universe we live in. Prof. Steven Weinberg writes at the end of his book The First Three Minutes' (of the universe!);
"The effort of understand the universe is one of the very' few things that lifts human life a little above the level of the farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.”
Rabindranath Tagore says
The truth is difficult, I have loved the difficult; it does not
deceive any one"
Kazi Nazrul Islam says:
“The sustained effort to understand the totality of tings is life's greatest pursuit."
Prof. Freeman Dyson, who has been referred to as one of the intellectuals giants of this century, says (this is an excerpt from BBC broadcast):
"1 believe in diversity... the one world that summarises my philosophy is diversity'... that applies to technology and to human affairs and to everything else. That is also the characteristic of life... the beauty of life and its robustness comes from the fact that it diversifies itself into millions of different forms. If life had stuck with two or three different species it would not have survived. The way it survives is by trying out millions of different patterns. That is of course the reason why the natural world is so beautiful. I believe the same applies to the universe”.
In several of his writings, Prof. Dyson has described the endless possibilities, as he sees them, in the future development of mankind, if proper use is made of our abilities and resources. To realise the potentials, it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of how nature works. Two thousand years ago the Roman poet Virgil said "Blessed are those who know the cause of things." This saying is more relevant today than it has ever been. One sometimes talks about 'controlling nature'; I prefer the expression "harmonizing with nature.'
I want now to make a few remarks about the gap between the rich and the poor, which appears to be widening here and elsewhere, and which I believe is a threat to the stability of society. Benjamin Disraeli, who was Prime Minister of Britain during 1874-80, published a novel called Sybil" in 1845 in which he writes as follows about contemporary British society:
"Two nations between
whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are ignorant of each others' habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers ... of different planets."
Disraeli warned the wealthy that they must close the gulf in society, if only to protect their basic interests. Disraeli also says about young "drop outs',
that they had 'exhausted life in their teens and all that remained for them was to mourn, amid the ruins of their reminiscences, on the extinction of (their intellectual) excitement', who is black, and who says the conditions with regard to black Americans is not dissimilar to the situation depicted by Disraeli more than a hundred and fifty years ago in Britain. I would urge you to ponder to what extent these remarks apply to our society, and what we should all do about it. It is said that beyond a certain point injustice in a society becomes a threat to the whole society. So is it with mankind. 1 believe sufficient and continuing injustice is likely to pose a threat to the entire human race. Two thousand five hundred years ago Confucius said that the human race is a family. At about the same time Buddha expressed similar sentiments. One of the most prophetic sayings of the holy Hadith, I believe, is the following:
"Mankind will not go astray after having found the right path, unless from disputation."
These sayings could help us to find the path ahead.
I want to mention something about the environment, which has been much discussed in recent years. The problem of the green house effect and the ozone layer are well-known, in which much more work is needed which may take years if not decades. It is well said that we should regard the environment as not something that we have inherited from our forefathers, but as something we have borrowed from future generations; we must ensure that we leave it in at least as good a condition as we found it.
It is also clear that to solve the enormous problems of the environment, to devise means of having sustainable development into the indefinite future, it is not enough to do more research and work harder, but it is also a question of inculcating an appropriate ethos and developing a culture and civilization in the true sense, where the primary attitude of mind is that of mutual respect, care for the environment and concern for the well-being and dignity of all human beings, and indeed the well-being of all living creatures, instead of, as at present, the acquisition of
preserve, sustain and cherish life in this beautiful planet Earth-our home in the universe.
Postscript
I would like to discuss some further points that relate to science, technology, education and development in a wide sense. As we know, purely scientific questions and problems can be extremely complicated and deep; it is natural that many meetings, conferences and workshops are devoted entirely to such questions and problems. However, as indicated by the above remarks, the importance of science and technology for other fields of knowledge, for various human activities and for society in general is undeniable. We have a series of conferences at the Research Centre in Chittagong on the foundations and philosophy of mathematical and physical sciences, which are meant, in a small measure, and in our humble capacity, to provide a forum in which wider questions relating to science can be discussed, primarily towards philosophy, possibly leading to wider issues. Ilya Prigogine, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1977, says:
'The role of philosophy in motivating new* avenues of research in science cannot be
undermined. Philosophy's objective is to analyse the methods of science, to axiomatize and to clarify the concepts used."
One is, for example, reminded of the circumstance that Einstein (1879-1955) was influenced in his General Teory
of Relativity by the ideas of the philosopher Ernst Mach (1838-1916).
The year 1996 gave us the opportunity, in the third conference of the series just mentioned, to commemorate two important events in the history of ideas, namely, the four hundredth birth anniversary of Rene Descartes (1596-1650), and three hundred and fifty years of the birth of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). They are probably the only examples of a person who is a front-rank philosopher as well as mathematician.
"Descartes was the greatest of French philosophers, who astonishing analytical genius was displayed in the invention of coordinate geometry and in his contributions to theoretical physics, to methodology and to metaphysics." Russell says that Descartes "is usually considered the founder of modern philosophy, and 1 think, rightly. He is the first man of high philosophic capacity whose outlook is profoundly affected by the new physics and astronomy."
Leibniz was a "German philosopher, mathematician and man of affairs, one of the major systematic thinkers of modern times, important both as a metaphysician and as logician and distinguished also for his independent invention
of the differential and integral calculus". Russell says Leibniz "was one of the supreme intellects of all time." In the preface of his book History of Western Philosophy, Russell says, "With the possible exception of Leibniz, every' philosopher of
whom I treat is better known to some others than to me." Russell made a special study of Leibniz, so his views about the latter are important: we will return to this later.
Rene Descartes was born in 1596 at La Haye near Tours in France, and was educated at the Jesuit College at La Fleche. He was unhappy, like many of his contemporaries, about the education based on Aristotelianism. After leaving College he attempted to resolve the crisis by inventing a method based on mathematical reasoning. For a time he served as a soldier in Holland, Bohemia and Hungary. After leaving the army in 1621 Descartes devoted himself to the study of science and philosophy. He retired to Holland in 1629 and lived and worked there in great seclusion for twenty years. A small fortune that he had inherited and invested enabled him to be free of financial worries. His doctrines, however, brought him in confrontation with Dutch theologians. In 1648, through the initiative of the French ambassador in Holland, Descartes accepted an invitation from Queen Christina of Sweden to instruct her in philosophy. As the queen was very busy, she fixed five o'clock in the morning as the time for her lessons. This was too strenuous for the philosopher. He caught a chill and died in Stockholm in 1650. Russell is critical of Queen Christina, "who thought, as a sovereign, she had the right to waste the time ofgreatmen."17
Russell’s summing up of Descartes is as follows
"Descartes was a philosopher, a mathematician, and a man of science. In philosophy and mathematics, his work was of supreme importance; in science, though creditable, it was not so good as that of some of hiscontemporaries." 18
Descartes' work on mathematics I will discuss elsewhere. His main works in philosophy were the Discourse on Method (1637) and the Meditations
(1642). In these he propounded the method of 'Cartesian doubt', that is, a way of gaining knowledge by first doubting everything that is known, and accepting only those pieces of knowledge about which one is absolutely sure. In this manner Descartes came to the conclusion that the surest piece of knowledge he possessed was that he exists, for if he didn’t exist he could not doubt. Or, at any rate some being or agent that is thinking exists. Hence we have Descartes' famous dictum 'Cogito ergo sum' (I think therefore I am). Russell makes the following remark about thecogito:19
"There is thus, in all philosophy derived from Descartes, a tendency to subjectivism, and to regarding matter as something only knowable, if at all, by inference from what is known of mind."
Although the sense perception from an object is direct, something which animals also feel, the idea or notion of the object itself requires the mind; one does not directly feel' the object. This aspect occurs later in the work of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) in his idea of things-in-themselves'. Although Descartes' method ran into difficulties, his influence has been pervasive. One of the most important aspects of this influence was that after him the tendency to appeal to previous authority (such as to Aristotle) to settle scientific questions diminished. Russell t races the transition from medieval scholasticism via the Italian renaissance to the rise of modern science. He says:
The new conceptions that science introduced profoundly influenced modern philosophy. Descartes, who was in a sense the founder, of modern philosophy, was himself one of the creators of seventeenth century science."20
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born on July 1, 1646 in Leipzig in Germany; he was the son of a professor of moral philosophy. He obtained a bachelor's degree in philosophy after a brilliant career and a doctor of law in 1667. He was offered a university post but
rejected it in favour of service of the German nobility. During his service he spent four years (1672-1676) in Paris. These years w ere crucial for his mathematical studies, and in 1675 he invented differential calculus independent of Newton. In 1676 he entered the service of the Duke of Hanover, until he died there on November 14, 1716. All through his service he continued his intellectual pursuits in mathematics, science, technology: philosophy, theology, law, politics and history: The works that he left behind continue to be of great interest to scholars until the present time. It appears that w hen he ceased to be of use, the German nobility ignored him.
He died neglected; the only mourner at his funeral was his secretary' JG Von Eckhart, who said, "he was buried more like a
robber than what he really was, the ornament of his country." 21
Russell says
"Like Descartes and Spinoza, Leibniz based his philosophy on the notion of substance, but he differed radically from them as regards the relation of mind and matter, and as regards the number of substances."22
Russell goes on to explain that Descartes allowed three substances, God and mind and matter, while Spinoza admitted God alone. Leibniz thought there must be an infinite number of substances; this led him to his famous "Monads", which most people find very difficult to understand. In spite of their strangeness, Russell says:
".. his monads can still be useful as suggesting possible ways of viewing perception." 23
Leibniz brought to perfec-
tion the arguments for the existence of God; since his time this kind of reasoning has become unfashionable. The arguments are based on (1) the ontological argument (using considerations of existence and essence), (2) the cosmological argument (a kind of First-Cause), (3) the argument from eternal truths, (4) the argument from pre-established harmony. Although some aspects of this debate are out of date, it is interesting that in various forms and guises these ideas and this kind of reasoning appear again and again in different contexts.
Leibniz was in some sense the first person to invent a form of mathematical logic. The idea was to introduce a formal procedure through which arguments could be settled; no matter in what field or topic these arguments took place. Modern mathematical logic incorporates this, but its success is some-what limited, so far. 24.
Those who think that scientists live in ivory towers, will be surprised to read the following excerpt from Roger Penrose's book 'Shadows of the Mind’. 1 am quoting at some length because I consider this excerpt to be very relevant to the matters we are discussing.
Can robots save this troubled world?
"As we open our newspapers or watch our television screens, we seem to be continually assaulted by the fruits of Mankind's stupidity: Countries, or parts of countries, are set against one another in confrontations that may, from time to time, flare into hideous warfare. Excessive religious fervour, or nationalism, or separate ethnic interests, or mere linguistic or cultural differences, or the selfseeking interests or particular demagogues, may result in continuing unrest and violence, sometimes boiling over to outbursts of unspeakable atrocity. Oppressively authoritarian regimes still subjugate their peoples, keeping them in check by the use of death squads and torture. Yet, those who are oppressed, and who might seem to have a common purpose are often locked in conflict with one another, and when given a freedom that they may have been long denied, may seem to choose to use that freedom in horribly self-destructive
ways. Even in those fortunate countries where there is prosperity, peace, and democratic freedom, resources and manpower are squandered in apparently senseless ways. Is this not a clear indication of the general stupidity of Man? Though we believe ourselves to represent the pinnacle of intelligence in the animal kingdom, this intelligence seems sadly inadequate to handle many of the problems that our own society continues to confront us with.
Yet, the positive achievements of our intelligence cannot be denied. Among these achievements are our impressive science and technology: Indeed, whilst it must be admitted that some of the fruits of this technology are of distinctly questionable long-term (or short-term) value, as is borne witness by numerous environmental problems and a genuine fear of a technology-induced global catastrophe, it is this same technology that has given us our modern society, with its comforts, its considerable freedoms from fear, disease and need, and with its vast opportunities for intellectual and aesthetic expansion, and for mindbroadening global communication. If this technology' has opened up so many potentialities and, in a sense, increased the scope and the power or our individual physicafTeKfes, can we not expect much more in the future?
There is little doubt in my own mind that there is indeed, implicit in our (frequently computer-driven) technological society, at least one direction with an enormous potential for enhancing intelligence. I refer, here, to the educational possibilities of our society, which could gain great benefit from different aspects of technology -- but only if it is used with sensi-tivity and understanding. Technology provides the potential, by use of well-produced books, film, television, and interactive computer-controlled systems or various kinds. These, and other developments, provide many opportunities for expanding our minds or else for deadening them. The human mind is capable of vastly more than it is often given the chance to achieve. Sadly, these opportunities are all too frequently squandered, and the minds of neither young
nor old are provided the opening that they undoubtedly deserve."
Incidentally, Prof Penrose lectured at the first Chittagong Conference on Mathematical Physics in January 1986. The late Prof Abdus Salam, who inaugurated the conference, after his usual recitation from the Holy Qur'an said: "I am happy to see Roger Penrose, one of the world's greatest mathematicians". Last year I was invited by Penrose to give a talk at Oxford. As usual, I used chalk and blackboard, and remarked that I have never seen Roger use anything but chalk and blackboard, or notes (except on one occasion when he used a hand-written transparency). Prof Penrose has retired from the Rouse Ball chair of mathematics at Oxford; he was awarded the order of Merit, Britain's highest civil award. He is making strenuous efforts to understand the mind'!
We continue with this 'collage', of seemingly disparate items which, nevertheless, hopefully, will form a harmonious and integrated whole.
Penrose has displayed considerable insight into the con-temporary scene. I am sure he is aware of the unscrupulousness, or worse, of established institutions. The unspeakable atrocity' of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not perpetrated by the likes of the Hutu and theTutsi!
Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, made the following statement at the general assembly in 1998:
The manner in which technical assistant is provided ... needs to be critically reexamined. Technical assistance as it was originally conceived was designed to close the technical capacity gap between industrial and developingcountries by accelerating the transfer of knowledge, skills and expertise, thereby building national capacity'. In some cases this has been done but, in many others, technical assistance has had precisely the opposite effect, reining in rather than unleashing national capacity: It has been observed that today, after more than 40 years of technical assistance programmes [in Africa), 90 per cent of the S12 billion a year spent on technical assistance is still spent on foreign expertise-despite the fact that national experts are now available in many fields."
great advantage, at least, of having created a considerable body of rich professionals, administrators and politicians, deeply interested in the continuance ofWestern (and Eastern!) influence, domination and markets, and having a significant power over the mass of the people."
References (Partial)
1. The following two or three paragraphs are based on my article entitled 'Some Aspects of Science in Bangladesh' in The Future of Science in China and the Third World, Editors: AM Faruqui MHA Hassan. World Scientific, Singapore 1989.
2. Amartya Sen: Development as Freedom, Oxford University Press 1999.
3. Quoted in The Future of Science in China and the Third World, Ref. 1.
4. The presence of the Third World Academy of Sciences in any country, as far as 1 am aware, does not necessarily imply support for the policies of the government of that country. This presence often helps the scientists of that country', who
self-reliance, or lack of it, is, I believe a major problem in Bangladesh. I have written and spoken about it several times in the past few years. Although some relatively minor benefits do accrue, foreign aid is not only unnecessary, in the long run it is damaging, and may eventually be devastating. The late Rajib Gandhi is reported to have said in the Indian parliament that in the foreign aided projects, only 15% of the total amount allotted is spent on the actual purpose for which it is meant. Some years ago Dr D P Pattanaik, a linguistics expert from India, visited the University of Chittagong Dr Pattanaik and received the "Padma Shree" from the Indian government
and had been involved for some years in development work. He mentioned 5% instead of Mr Gandhi's 15% Whether the actual figure is 5 per cent, 15 per cent or 20 per cent, it is clear from these remarks that a significant portion of the foreign ^id funds to India used to go astray. This situation is consistent with the above statement by the UN Secretary-General. It appears that foreign aid to India has diminished considerably in recent years. It will be generally agreed that the physical and administrative infrastructure in Bangladesh is weaker than in India. The percentage of foreign aid that is utilized is likely to be less than the figure mentioned.
The last paragraph of the first essay in my Bengali book Shilpo
Shahitto O Shamaj ('Art, Literature and Society') pub-lished by Rahat-Siraj Publications in Chittagong in March 1998, reads, in translation, as follows [the chapter is entitled Bangladesher Unnoyon V Efe ve rh'^i'^'n t o f Bangladesh’)):
"Let us not impose on the tribal people the enormous imbalance that foreign aid has created in our country. We are more or less tolerating this condition (how much longer?): they will not be able to tolerate it. At the same time, we must resist the negative effects created by foreign aid in our country: In reality, this is also one of the main reasons of the competition. sometimes leading to violence in the elections. Any
government can bring under its control and enormous amount of money without sufficient accountability. Even though many in the government have good will, be are not sufficiently aware. Although there is some improvement, this help< to create that "secret jealousy," which eventually adds fuel to violence. I have said before, that I am for not taking a single penny of foreign aid. After my return to this country' twelve years ago, this conviction and opinion has grown stronger and stronger."
I returned permanently to this country in 1984. Although the book from which this extract is taken was published in 1998, clearly the piece was written around 1996.1 might add, in the year 2002, that after more than seventeen year of return to this country, this conviction is even stronger.
Writing about "experiments in economic development in the modern era," Noam Chomsky, in his book ’Profit over People's published in 1999, makes the following remarks:
"... the designers tend to do quite well, though the subjects of the experiment often take a beating."
The first major experiment was carried out two hundred years ago, when the British rulers in India instituted the "Permanent Settlement," which was going to do wondrous things. The results were reviewed by an official commission forty years later, which concluded that "the settlement fashioned with great care and deliberation has unfortunately subjected the lower classes to most grievous oppres-sion," leaving misery that "hardly finds a parallel in the history of commerce," as "the bones of the cotton weavers are bleachingtheplainsof India."
The remarks following the above excerpt from Chomsky's book are very significant.
"But the experiment can hardly be written off as a failure. The British governor general observed that "the Permanent Settlement," though a failure in many other respects and in most important essentials, has this great advantage, at least, of having created a vast body of rich land proprietors deeply interested in the continuance of the British Dominion and having complete command over the mass of the people."
The situation depicted in the last excerpt, 1 believe, has continued to the present times, in one form or another. In view of what I have said earlier about foreign aid, one could make a parody of the above remarks, as follows:
"Foreign aid, though a failure in many other respects and in most important essentials, this
may not otherwise have sufficient outlet; the relevant government may be encouraged towards more meaningful science and technology policies and educational policies generally.
5. JN Is fam, FI NAS "Foundation Lecture, "Science, Philosophy, Religion and Ideology, published in the Lecture Series 1990 of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, republished in Humanomics, Barmarick Publications, UK.
6. Quoted in L Stanley, Cambridge: City of Dreams, WH Allen & Co. 1987.
7. Bertrand Russell: History ofWestern Philosophy.
8. H Hesse: The Glass Bead Game, Penguin Modern Classics 1960.
9. E Schrodinger, Nature and the Greeks, Cambridge University Press 1954.
10. RP Feynman, Surely You're joking Mr Feynman, Bantam Press 1986.
11. S. Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, first published by Andre Deutsch in 1977, republished with an Afterward by Fontana Paperbacks in 1983.
12. FJ Dyson, Infinite in all Directions, Harper & Row 1988; see also JN Islam, The Ultimate Fate of the Universe, Cambridge University Press 1983, and FJ Tipler, The Physics of Immortality, Doubleday and Anchor Books 1994.
13. "Our Common Future," Report to the United Nations by World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), headed by Mrs Gro Harlem Bruntland, a former Prime Minister of Norway, Published in the form ofthis bookin 1987.
14. SV Keeling, 'Rene Descartes,' Encyclopaedia Britannica,Volume7(1970).
15. B Russell, op. cit, p 580.
16. M Kneale, 'Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.' Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 13. (1970).
17. B Russell, op.cit.p. 604
18. B. Russell, op. cit.p 584
19. B. Russell, op.cit.p 586
20. B. Russell. op.cit.p547
21. M Kneale, op.cit.
22. B. Russell, op.cit.p 606
23. B. Russell,op.cit.p.619
24. The brief lives of Descartes arid Leibniz given here are taken partly from Descartes: Discourse on Method and the Meditations, ranslated with an introduction by FE Sutcliffe, Penguin Classics (1968), and from Leibniz:- Philosophical Writings, Edited by GHR Parkinson, JM Dent. London (1995).
The writer Is Director, Research Centre for Mathematical and Physical Sciences University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh.