Jacob Bronowski made that fact clear in his BBC/PBS series The Ascent of Man. In spite of the early 1970's misogyny in the title, Bronowski's argument was a humanist one.
One of the arguments against science these days is a postmodernist one. That, for instance, scientists created the atomic bomb. These arguments inevitably ignore the extent to which the very scientists who first came up with the idea (specifically Leo Szilard -- the person who patented nuclear chain reaction and attempted to keep it secret) abandoned nuclear weapons after the war.
Both Szilard and Bronowski ended up at the Salk Institute in CA. Both abandoned their previous disciplines for biology, one that helps, rather than kills.
The Ascent of Man is one of the most important humanist documents in our history. Granted, since the early 70's science has moved on. Nevertheless, it paints a portrait of human cultural advancement. That what is important in Bronowski's essays. His sole focus is culture as much as it is science.
I cannot watch episode 11 without tears coming to my eyes. It is a profound humanist statement connecting quantum theory, and its inherent fuzzy causality, with philosophical and political movements of the 1930's.
I will leave you with Bronowski's final words in this essay:
It's said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That's false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.
Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken."
I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died here, to stand here as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.
Jacob Bronoski (1908-1974)
A mathematician and humanist of some note.
Gees, I cannot even post this without tears coming to my eyes. It is a profoundly true document.
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