George Orwell在《What is science?》中提到，科学家在科学领域之外，并不比普通人更明智，他以“抵制民族主义能力（the ability to withstand nationalism）”为例，德国纳粹时期，就有很多科学家追随德国政府，为其战争机器研究合成油料、喷气飞机、火箭和原子弹之类等。跟德国科学家全盘接受“种族科学（racial science）”相比，德国作家和记者则要好一些。
But is it really true that a ‘scientist’, in this narrower sense, is any likelier than other people to approach non-scientific problems in an objective way? There is not much reason for thinking so. Take one simple test — the ability to withstand nationalism. It is often loosely said that ‘Science is international’, but in practice the scientific workers of all countries line up behind their own governments with fewer scruples than are felt by the writers and the artists. The German scientific community, as a whole, made no resistance to Hitler. Hitler may have ruined the long-term prospects of German science, but there were still plenty of gifted men to do the necessary research on such things as synthetic oil, jet planes, rocket projectiles and the atomic bomb. Without them the German war machine could never have been built up.
On the other hand, what happened to German literature when the Nazis came to power? I believe no exhaustive lists have been published, but I imagine that the number of German scientists — Jews apart — who voluntarily exiled themselves or were persecuted by the règime was much smaller than the number of writers and journalists. More sinister than this, a number of German scientists swallowed the monstrosity of ‘racial science’. You can find some of the statements to which they set their names in Professor Brady's The Spirit and Structure of German Fascism.
见：
George Orwell What is science?
Tribune 'Voice of the Left' (1945) 9-11
George Orwell: What is Science?
orwell.ru/library/articles/science/english/e_scien
George Orwell What is Science | Science Education | Reason
https://www.scribd.com/.../355762053/George-Orwell-What-is-Science
转载本文请联系原作者获取授权，同时请注明本文来自刘进平科学网博客。
链接地址：https://wap.sciencenet.cn/blog-39731-1153329.html?mobile=1
收藏
