THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH, HARMONY AND BEAUTY AND THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF A SCIENTIST

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The opposite point of view is, that a scientist performs a certain so-cial function and reports to the society. Performing a certain social function brings certain moral obligations.
When science was in its infancy the focus obviously was mainly on the moral attitude to which a scientist was obliged because of his social stand-ing. Socrates stressed very much the relation of knowledge and virtue. He argued that virtue and knowledge were heads and tails of the same coin. Having the knowledge was sufficient to be righteous. When being shown the practical disagreement between knowledge and virtue he claimed that this was confined to superficial knowledge which was not deep enough. “It´s exactly the same to know what is just and to be just.”
Throughout the history a general conviction has been developed that being a scientist was as for a profession but a kind of a mission. Motives for choosing a scientific career have been lofty. Scientists were searching for truth, for the happiness of the human kind, for being in connection with the beauty and harmony of the universe. The reward for the sacrifices of the scientist was supposed to be not mere material compensation, not wealth or honors, but rather close everyday relation with beauty and regularity, learning the secrets of nature. A scientist often discards his personal happiness and is even ready to sacrifice his life if necessary. Scientists usually set high requirements for themselves.
Successive generations of scientists started their efforts full of self-abnegation in order to learn the truth, to display the universal beauty and harmony. The aims could of course be illusory, and never possible to achieve, being still useful as an ideal and inspiration. Psychologically this emotional fascination with the noble aims of the scientists was in their own mind; striving to achieve was an encouragement to start scientific research. The loftiness of the goals played an important part in the development of science, because of at least two following reasons:
First. On each level of scientific development a scientist creates for himself a theoretical framework which is necessary for scientific research. Each framework has its shortcomings which have to be overcome as a condition for further progress. It seems that the ideals of learning the truth area better motivation for breaking this limit than merely desire to manage the world.
Second. When the distance between the time of scientific discovery and its common acceptance was very long, often exceeding one lifetime, these attractive goals were a sufficient foundation, they were giving the courage necessary to face the “Boetian shout“─the public opinion.