Holton says he is confident that a properbalance of criticism and acceptance of sciencewill exist in American politics due to the natureof the nation's democracy. "The wonderful thingabout the American political scene is it wasinvented by people who were reacting to excesses,"he says.
Democracy provides a constant dialogue whichprevents "bad-science" from rising to power.Holton adds that when democracy is absent, no suchcheck exists.
"When science [of a totalitarian nation]interacts with political beliefs, the scientistsare taken to task and have to pay for it," saysHolton.
On a recent trip to China, Holton says he foundthe scientific texts were still based on "mid 19thcentury Marxist" theory long ago discredited byWestern science.
Holton says the Chinese scientists had a "greathunger" for a scientific philosophy which wouldallow them to break away from their outdatedtexts. Holton says this hunger for new ideas isencouraging but fragile, since it can besuppressed at any moment by a dictatorship.
But Professor of English and ComparativeLiterature James Engell '73 says he is concernedwith the amount of resources the U.S. alreadyinvests in science. "The intellectual energy andresources that we spend on science is enormous,"he says.
Engell says the increasing economic focus ofuniversities may allow the natural sciences toinadvertently dominate the academic scene.
"Universities are so money driven thathumanities people are under the gun. They feelthat since they don't bring in money and don'tgarner large research grants they end up beingtreated as second or third class citizens," Engellsays.
Herschbach was asked to comment on the fearthat science may eventually encompass and explainall of human culture, including the humanities.
"I would never imagine such a thing," he says.