The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants

The flash of atomic bomb dispelled darkness that provided cover for illusion that science was an ethically neutral enterprise. In light of flash it was also revealed that while man as a scientist grew into a giant, as a student of ethics he gradually shrank into a dwarf (Jaki, 1978). For first time in his history, man, whom Pascal described as a reed, weakest thing in nature, but, nevertheless, a thinking reed, (1947, p. 83) now has at his disposal a scientific tool with which he could extinguish all life on this Spaceship Earth. The likelihood that he may do so is well within realm of possibility. After all, men are imperfect, greedy and ambitious. It was also same Pascal who wrote: men naturally one another. Concupiscence has been somehow or other pressed into service of public; but this is only a sham and a false picture of charity, for in reality it is but hate (1947, p 89). Because of man's imperfections, his concupiscence, rules of law, of morality, of etiquette even, have been established in order to place restrictions on man's freedom to act for sake of greater good. All these restrictions may be summed up in word civilization, which through underlying notion of civis, reveals its real origin (Ortega, 1932, p. 75). In this way, man has endeavored to create his own particular culture, to provide an ambience within which man is free to cultivate himself, to reduce his imperfections, to strive to perfect himself. In this essay, perfection is understood not only in its moral sense, but also in its ontological sense. That is, it is concerned with full reality of humanity, of human and in reason is sought the ground for excellence, perfection, and full reality of human existence (Messner, 1949, p. 16).