Being Human: Readings from the President's Council on Bioethics
Chapter 2: Scientific Aspirations
Introduction
In our first chapter, we saw how human beings have long struggled
with our opposing desires and dispositions: to behold and
appreciate the given world, and to shape it into what we would
like it to be. In this chapter we turn our attention toward
science, a mode of inquiry and body of learning that has served
both aspirations with awesome effectiveness. From what does
science come? What are its animating impulses? What are its
goals?
The readings that follow explore the wellsprings of scientific
activity by drawing on histories and memoirs of five great
scientists. All of these men have irrevocably affected our
lives with the fruits of their labor, rigor, and genius. From
these words written by or about them, we can see that all
were spurred to greatness by different ambitions and visions.
The first scientist recalled below-by Plutarch, in an excerpt
from his "Life of Marcellus"-is the ancient geometrician Archimedes.
Archimedes, who disdained applying his discoveries toward
practical ends, exemplifies the pursuit of knowledge for its
own sake. This view is radically altered by René Descartes,
who in his Discourse on Method sought a new way of
knowing that could make us "like masters and possessors of
nature."
Three contemporary scientists follow Archimedes and Descartes,
both in our chapter and, to varying extents, in philosophical
outlook. Entomologist E. O.Wilson, in an excerpt from his
autobiography, Naturalist, recounts three episodes
in his boyhood that formed him as a "naturalist" who "celebrate[d]
. . . animals that can be picked up between thumb and forefinger
and brought close for inspection." Two chapters from the autobiography
of the late physicist Richard Feynman, Surely You're Joking,
Mr. Feynman, establish his love of play and especially
of solving puzzles. His "puzzle drive" leads Feynman to physics;
as a physicist, he is determined to remain playful. Finally,
biologist James Watson celebrates the pursuit of scientific
glory in an excerpt from The Double Helix, the story
of his race, with Francis Crick, to discover the structure
of DNA. Here, scientific activity is directed as much toward
the Nobel Prize that would surely go to the winner as toward
the mystery that would be solved or the uses to which the
new knowledge might be put.
***
Excerpt from
The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden
This passage from Plutarch's Lives
contains a brief portrait of the life, work, and death of
the legendary Greek mathematician, Archimedes, known both
for his feats of engineering and for his theoretical studies.
The portrait appears in the "Life of
Marcellus." Marcellus, a Roman general, is described by
Plutarch as "skillful in the art of war, of a strong body,
valiant of hand, and by natural inclinations addicted to
war." Yet though a consummate soldier, Marcellus was in
other respects "modest and obliging, and so far studious
of Greek learning and discipline, as to honour and admire
those that excelled in it."
The attached passage begins just after
Marcellus has assaulted the Sicilian city of Syracuse, the
home of Archimedes. Marcellus attacks with a massive force
of ships, arms, and missiles. Yet all his weapons are no
match for Archimedes and the instruments of war he has devised.
In what follows, Plutarch first explains
why Archimedes has designed these machines, despite his
sympathy with those, like Plato, who consider mechanics
the "corruption and annihilation" of geometry. The passage
proceeds to a dazzling account of the terror his machines
inflict on Marcellus's men.
Plutarch next writes that, despite
Archimedes' worldly success, he still "placed his whole
affection and ambition in those purer speculations where
there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of life."
Then follow stories Plutarch has heard about Archimedes'
uncannily single-minded devotion to geometry.
What moves Archimedes? Why does he
disdain the inventions and machines he is able to devise
on the basis of his geometrical knowledge? Why does he prefer
"purer speculations"?
How might Archimedes' way of approaching
mathematics be explained by what he sees in it? What might
that vision be?
Why did Archimedes refuse to obey the
soldier who ordered him to go to Marcellus? Do you admire
his reason for refusing?
Why is Marcellus so afflicted by the
death of Archimedes? What do the several stories about how
he died tell us about the ruling passion of this man of
science, and about the relations of the scientific quest
to the rest of life?
Can one imagine a man like Archimedes
managing the human demands of his own life? His work had
the power to transform the lives of others. Is there anything
to be feared from a man so capable of affecting others,
yet so indifferent to ordinary human needs?
***
Marcellus attacks Syracuse by land and
sea.
. . . The land forces were conducted by Appius: Marcellus,
with sixty galleys, each with five rows of oars, furnished
with all sorts of arms and missiles, and a huge bridge of
planks laid upon eight ships chained together, upon which
was carried the engine to cast stones and darts, assaulted
the walls, relying on the abundance and magnificence of his
preparations, and on his own previous glory; all which, however,
were, it would seem, but trifles for Archimedes and his machines.
These machines he had designed and contrived, not as matters
of any importance, but as mere amusements in geometry; in
compliance with King Hiero's desire and request, some little
time before, that he should reduce to practice some part of
his admirable speculation in science, and by accommodating
the theoretic truth to sensation and ordinary use, bring it
more within the appreciation of the people in general. Eudoxus
and Archytas had been the first originators of this far-famed
and highly-prized art of mechanics, which they employed as
an elegant illustration of geometrical truths, and as means
of sustaining experimentally, to the satisfaction of the senses,
conclusions too intricate for proof by words and diagrams.
As, for example, to solve the problem, so often required in
constructing geometrical figures, given the two extremes,
to find the two mean lines of a proportion, both these mathematicians
had recourse to the aid of instruments, adapting to their
purpose certain curves and sections of lines. But what with
Plato's indignation at it, and his invectives against it as
the mere corruption and annihilation of the one good of geometry,
which was thus shamefully turning its back upon the unembodied
objects of pure intelligence to recur to sensation, and to
ask help (not to be obtained without base supervisions and
depravation) from matter; so it was that mechanics came to
be separated from geometry, and, repudiated and neglected
by philosophers, took its place as a military art. Archimedes,
however, in writing to King Hiero, whose friend and near relation
he was, had stated that given the force, any given weight
might be moved, and even boasted, we are told, relying on
the strength of demonstration, that if there were another
earth, by going into it he could remove this. Hiero being
struck with amazement at this, and entreating him to make
good this problem by actual experiment, and show some great
weight moved by a small engine, he fixed accordingly upon
a ship of burden out of the king's arsenal, which could not
be drawn out of the dock without great labour and many men;
and, loading her with many passengers and a full freight,
sitting himself the while far off, with no great endeavour,
but only holding the head of the pulley in his hand and drawing
the cords by degrees, he drew the ship in a straight line,
as smoothly and evenly as if she had been in the sea. The
king, astonished at this, and convinced of the power of the
art, prevailed upon Archimedes to make him engines accommodated
to all the purposes, offensive and defensive, of a siege.
These the king himself never made use of, because he spent
almost all his life in a profound quiet and the highest affluence.
But the apparatus was, in most opportune time, ready at hand
for the Syracusans, and with it also the engineer himself.
When, therefore, the Romans assaulted the walls in two places
at once, fear and consternation stupefied the Syracusans,
believing that nothing was able to resist that violence and
those forces. But when Archimedes began to ply his engines,
he at once shot against the land forces all sorts of missile
weapons, and immense masses of stone that came down with incredible
noise and violence; against which no man could stand; for
they knocked down those upon whom they fell in heaps, breaking
all their ranks and files. In the meantime huge poles thrust
out from the walls over the ships sunk some by the great weights
which they let down from on high upon them; others they lifted
up into the air by an iron hand or beak like a crane's beak
and, when they had drawn them up by the prow, and set them
on end upon the poop, they plunged them to the bottom of the
sea; or else the ships, drawn by engines within, and whirled
about, were dashed against steep rocks that stood jutting
out under the walls, with great destruction of the soldiers
that were aboard them. A ship was frequently lifted up to
a great height in the air (a dreadful thing to behold), and
was rolled to and fro, and kept swinging, until the mariners
were all thrown out, when at length it was dashed against
the rocks, or let fall. At the engine that Marcellus brought
upon the bridge of ships, which was called Sambuca,
from some resemblance it had to an instrument of music, while
it was as yet approaching the wall, there was discharged a
piece of rock of ten talents weight, then a second and a third,
which, striking upon it with immense force and a noise like
thunder, broke all its foundation to pieces, shook out all
its fastenings, and completely dislodged it from the bridge.
So Marcellus, doubtful what counsel to pursue, drew off his
ships to a safer distance, and sounded a retreat to his forces
on land. They then took a resolution of coming up under the
walls, if it were possible, in the night; thinking that as
Archimedes used ropes stretched at length in playing his engines,
the soldiers would now be under the shot, and the darts would,
for want of sufficient distance to throw them, fly over their
heads without effect. But he, it appeared, had long before
framed for such occasions engines accommodated to any distance,
and shorter weapons; and had made numerous small openings
in the walls, through which, with engines of a shorter range,
unexpected blows were inflicted on the assailants. Thus, when
they who thought to deceive the defenders came close up to
the walls, instantly a shower of darts and other missile weapons
was again cast upon them. And when stones came tumbling down
perpendicularly upon their heads, and, as it were, the whole
wall shot out arrows at them, they retired. And now, again,
as they were going off arrows and darts of a longer range
inflicted a great slaughter among them, and their ships were
driven one against another; while they themselves were not
able to retaliate in any way. For Archimedes had provided
and fixed most of his engines immediately under the wall;
whence the Romans, seeing that indefinite mischief overwhelmed
them from no visible means, began to think they were fighting
with the gods.
Yet Marcellus escaped unhurt, and deriding his own artificers
and engineers, "What," said he, "must we give up fighting
with this geometrical Briareus, who plays pitch-and-toss with
our ships, and, with the multitude of darts which he showers
at a single moment upon us, really outdoes the hundred-handed
giants of mythology?" And, doubtless, the rest of the Syracusans
were but the body of Archimedes's designs, one soul moving
and governing all; for, laying aside all other arms, with
this alone they infested the Romans and protected themselves.
In fine, when such terror had seized upon the Romans, that,
if they did but see a little rope or a piece of wood from
the wall, instantly crying out, that there it was again, Archimedes
was about to let fly some engine at them, they turned their
backs and fled, Marcellus desisted from conflicts and assaults,
putting all his hope in a long siege. Yet Archimedes possessed
so high a spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of
scientific knowledge, that though these inventions had now
obtained him the renown of more than human sagacity, he yet
would not deign to leave behind him any commentary or writing
on such subjects; but, repudiating as sordid and ignoble the
whole trade of engineering, and every sort of art that lends
itself to mere use and profit, he placed his whole affection
and ambition in those purer speculations where there can be
no reference to the vulgar needs of life; studies, the superiority
of which to all others is unquestioned, and in which the only
doubt can be whether the beauty and grandeur of the subjects
examined, of the precision and cogency of the methods and
means of proof, most deserve our admiration. It is not possible
to find in all geometry more difficult and intricate questions,
or more simple and lucid explanations. Some ascribe this to
his natural genius; while others think that incredible effort
and toil produced these, to all appearances, easy and unlaboured
results. No amount of investigation of yours would succeed
in attaining the proof, and yet, once seen, you immediately
believe you would have discovered it; by so smooth and so
rapid a path he leads you to the conclusion required. And
thus it ceases to be incredible that (as is commonly told
of him) the charm of his familiar and domestic Siren made
him forget his food and neglect his person, to that degree
that when he was occasionally carried by absolute violence
to bathe or have his body anointed, he used to trace geometrical
figures in the ashes of the fire, and diagrams in the oil
on his body, being in a state of entire preoccupation, and,
in the truest sense, divine possession with his love and delight
in science. His discoveries were numerous and admirable; but
he is said to have requested his friends and relations that,
when he was dead, they would place over his tomb a sphere
containing a cylinder, inscribing it with the ratio which
the containing solid bears to the contained. . . .
Despite Archimedes' defenses, Marcellus
and his army eventually gain access to Syracuse. As they
prepare to enter, Marcellus regrets the coming, inevitable
destruction of the city he is taking.
. . . But nothing afflicted Marcellus so much as the death
of Archimedes, who was then, as fate would have it, intent
upon working out some problem by a diagram, and having fixed
his mind alike and his eyes upon the subject of his speculation,
he never noticed the incursion of the Romans, nor that the
city was taken. In this transport of study and contemplation,
a soldier, unexpectedly coming up to him, commanded him to
follow to Marcellus; which he declining to do before he had
worked out his problem to a demonstration, the soldier, enraged,
drew his sword and ran him through. Others write that a Roman
soldier, running upon him with a drawn sword, offered to kill
him; and that Archimedes, looking back, earnestly besought
him to hold his hand a little while, that he might not leave
what he was then at work upon inconclusive and imperfect;
but the soldier, nothing moved by his entreaty, instantly
killed him. Others again relate that, as Archimedes was carrying
to Marcellus mathematical instruments, dials, spheres, and
angles, by which the magnitude of the sun might be measured
to the sight, some soldiers seeing him, and thinking that
he carried gold in a vessel, slew him. Certain it is that
his death was very afflicting to Marcellus; and that Marcellus
ever after regarded him that killed him as a murderer; and
that he sought for his kindred and honoured them with signal
favours. ~
|
