The Community of Science and the Search for Peace

To speak of the community of science and the search for peace at this moment of history may seem anachronistic, if not actually pretentious. To many people, external suspicions and internal doubts seem to have robbed science of the self-confidence and sense of purpose that have given it the coherence of a community. To all who have for years striven to end the Vietnam War, the suggestion that peace requires only a search may seem empty and superficial. In fact, when the national anxiety disposes us to look for scapegoats, isn’t it possible that science is more connected with war than with peace?

To contest these points and give substance to this title requires our stepping back into a larger frame of time and freeing ourselves from some of these moods of the moment. Let me sketch some of the complex way s in which science and peace seem to be related.

Science is understanding, primarily of the physical and biological worlds, but also, to the extent that it is possible, of the more complex domain of human behavior. Peace is more than the absence of war: it is the restraint of aggression, the sense of security among nations and the functioning of the domestic order and economy at a level sufficient for meeting the deeply felt needs of the citizenry. While the requirements of such a peace are many and complex, it seems likely that an adequately functioning and response technology is an unavoidable necessity.