第10章 結論 n.5 - 現代における知的自由への脅威
知的自由が個人的に重要であるような人々は、社会においてはマイノリティかも知れない。しかし、それらの人々の中には(among them)、将来の世界にとって最重要な人々が存在している。我々は、コペルニクスやガリレオやダーウィンが人類の歴史における重要性を考察してきた。そうして、将来、このような人々がもはや生れないと想定することはできない。もし、彼ら(そういった人たち)が、彼らの仕事や彼らにふさわしい影響を及ぼすことが妨げられるとしたら、人類は沈滞し、かつて暗黒時代が古代の輝かしい時代の後に出現したように、新しい晴黒時代が到来するであろう(今後現れるであろう)。新しい真理は、特に権力をもっている者には、しばしば、不愉快なものである。それにも拘わらず、それは(新しい真理は)、長い残酷と頑迷の(人類の)記録の中にあって、知的であるがが気まぐれ々人類にとって最も重要な偉業である。[完] |
Chapter 10: Conclusion, n.5The threat to intellectual freedom is greater in our day than at any time since 1660 ; but it does not now come from the Christian Churches. It comes from governments, which, owing to the modern danger of anarchy and chaos, have succeeded to the sacrosanct character formerly belonging to the ecclesiastical authorities. It is the clear duty of men of science, and of all who value scientific knowledge, to protest against the new forms of persecution rather than to congratulate themselves complacently upon the decay of the older forms. And this duty is not lessened by any liking for the particular doctrines in support of which persecution occurs. No liking for Communism should make us unwilling to recognize what is amiss in Russia, or to realize that a regime which allows no criticism of its dogma must, in the end, become an obstacle to the discovery of new knowledge. Nor, conversely, should a dislike of Communism or Socialism lead us to condone the barbarities which have been perpetrated in suppressing them in Germany. In the countries in which men of science have won almost as much intellectual freedom as they desire, they should show, by impartial condemnation, that they dislike its curtailment elsewhere whatever may be the doctrines for the sake of which it is suppressed.Those to whom intellectual freedom is personally important may be a minority in the community, but among them are the men of most importance to the future. We have seen the importance of Copernicus, Galileo, and Darwin in the history of mankind, and it is not to be supposed that the future will produce no more such men. If they are prevented from doing their work and having their due effect, the human race will stagnate, and a new Dark Age will succeed, as the earlier Dark Age succeeded the brilliant period of antiquity. New truth is often uncomfortable, especially to the holders of power ; nevertheless, amid the long record of cruelty and bigotry, it is the most important achievement of our intelligent but wayward species. [End of Text] |