by Gaurav Ojha 

When I think of the progress of scientific knowledge, its applications, and its impact on human welling, flourishing and quality of life, I take reference to two poets from different historical periods. First of all, let us take the case of 19th-century romantic poet John Keats who died at the young age of 25 due to tuberculosis. For the people surviving in these modern times, we have medications and vaccines for this disease, however, during his romantic period, the great poet would only hope for survival by traveling to a place with a better and suitable climate for delaying the damages caused by tuberculosis. Besides, Keats for the hope of better health also participated in experimental therapy of extreme diet that only caused further bodily deterioration, but considering medications and therapies available during that time, the young poet had no choice.

We can only speculate what the poet would have produced only if he had survived for another ten years, as the poet wrote in this poem Ode to a Grecian Urn “ Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter”, therefore we can argue that his published poem is sweet and we can only presume that those poems that died with the poet would have also been much sweeter for us readers. Although the industrial revolution had gathered momentum during his lifetime, medical sciences were still at its formative stage, without any substantial scientific knowledge regarding medical procedures for this fatal disease. Therefore without proper medication, John Keats died early and just think of those illnesses that would have killed so many us without any antibiotics and vaccines.

In the 21st century, in a contrast to earlier periods in history, due to tremendous progress in medical sciences both in terms of knowledge accumulation and applications, Australian poet Clive James managed to survive with Chronic lymphocytic leukemia and other associated complications for 10 years after his diagnosis. More importantly, before his death at the age of eighty, the last ten years of his life were the most creative. With death staring at his face, the poet wrote perhaps some profound verses on the dimensions of life and death, nostalgia, and mortality. In this farewell poem, Japanese Maple, Clive James writes, A final flood of colors will live on/As my mind dies,/Burned by my vision of a world that shone/ So brightly at the last, and then was gone. The brightness and the colors of life indeed fade. With new medications, keeping the fragile poet alive and breathing for a decade, he was able to contemplate thoughts in his mind and put them into verses on pages.

Rather ironically, however, in the knowledge domain where these poets belong, in arts, education, humanities, and social sciences, contributions of scientific knowledge, methodologies, and achievements are not acknowledged as important foundations for social, aesthetic, ethical, intellectual, and cultural progress, indeed we have less suffering, violence, pain, misery and needless deaths due to scientific progress and achievements. Besides, different theoretical references in the domain of social sciences are rather critical and even dismissive of scientific approaches, features, and standards for the knowledge-building process. In arts, humanities, education, and social science departments of universities, the relevance of an objective standard for truth has been reduced to just another interpretation and the specific features of positivist research methodologies have been rejected as rather restrictive and framed as Newtonian reductionism, absolutism, unidimensional and intellectually oppressive.

Moreover, the knowledge generated in arts, education, humanities, and social science departments is highly subjective, based on far-fetched interpretations, useless theoretical assemblings, anecdotal, personalized perspectives, and limited to a particular case or context. Hence, due to its subjective, contextual, personalized, particularized, narrative and interpretive characteristics and orientations, knowledge generated in the domain of arts, education, and humanities, have very limited applied value, outcome orientations, or utility. Whereas knowledge, evidence, data, and observations that have been accumulated through scientific approaches, methodologies and orientations have applied value and transformative implications for both society and individuals, indeed antibiotics heal, airplanes fly, mobile phones connect, vaccines save millions of lives and diabetes medicines maintain sugar levels. Progress in scientific knowledge doesn’t mean we know everything, it simply means we know more than what we knew, indeed scientific discoveries have contributed significantly to the social, cultural, and ethical progress of society and enhanced the overall quality of human life.

According to cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, values of reason and science have brought about tremendous progress in overall health index, life extension, economic prosperity, safety and personal flourishing, and social well-being. Steven Pinker further adds that enlightenment values of scientific methodologies, objective analysis, rational evaluations and analysis, and freedom of expression are under threat from political correctness and postmodernism. Moreover, the populism of postmodern theories and interpretivism paradigm in arts, education, and humanities, and theoretical passions for critical theories and political correctness in social sciences have devalued and depleted the incomparable impact of scientific progress on human civilization to the level of oppressive grand narratives.

However, imagine a life without the progress of scientific knowledge, how short, difficult, and hopeless living a human life would have been, a simple infection would be life-threatening without the proper dose of antibiotics. Although we need aesthetics, narratives, arts, and interpretations, when it comes to understanding any phenomenon, event or occurrence or solving social problems, technological progress, or medical concerns,  scientific approach and methods are the most effective, efficient, testable, replicable, reliable and valid, and due to tremendous progress in scientific knowledge, we are better than never before.

Reference:

Pinker, S. (2018). Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress. Penguin UK.

About the Author:

Gaurav Ojha is a writer from Kathmandu, Nepal. He works have appeared in Indian Periodical.