Direction: Read the passage carefully and answer the question. The chief limitation of natural science is that it is not human. But we have to live with human beings including ourselves- and nearly…
Question and options
Direction: Read the passage carefully and answer the question.
The chief limitation of natural science is that it is not human. But we have to live with human beings including ourselves- and nearly all the problems of life are human, whereas the problems and subject- matter of physics, chemistry and biology are not. When we enter their laboratories, we find no human there, except ourselves and our fellow-workers. We are in a world of cells, elements, and atoms (or whatever substitutes for them the latest analysis reveals). There are obvious dangers in living in such a world. It is too unlike the world of men to be a good preparation for it; the fundamental reality in that world is human personality: the ideal society is a community of such personalities, self controlling, self-developing, self-respecting and respecting others. But natural science is not concerned with personality, at least in this sense and in their relations; and there is a risk that when we return to the human world, we may be inclined to ignore its difference from the laboratory, and even to treat men as if they were elements or cells. It is perhaps their training which explains why some scientists are sympathetic towards communism.
Some people turn to communism because it offers them a positive faith in an age of skepticism, makes their decision for them and once accepted, relieves them of the painful task of thinking for themselves. Materialistic scientists are attracted to communism for a different reason. Its drastic methods resemble those inanimate materials with atoms and cells, manipulating and controlling them in the interest of a great overriding end. It is this control and manipulation that makes the triumphs of science possible; and it seems natural to apply a similar technique to social and political problems and so achieve more rapid and effective results than the tedious methods of persuasion allow. This technique appears to offer the quickest way to a better and more rational world and in so good a cause it seems wrong to be too tender with individual personalities and conscience.
The chief limitation of natural science is that it is not human. But we have to live with human beings including ourselves- and nearly all the problems of life are human, whereas the problems and subject- matter of physics, chemistry and biology are not. When we enter their laboratories, we find no human there, except ourselves and our fellow-workers. We are in a world of cells, elements, and atoms (or whatever substitutes for them the latest analysis reveals). There are obvious dangers in living in such a world. It is too unlike the world of men to be a good preparation for it; the fundamental reality in that world is human personality: the ideal society is a community of such personalities, self controlling, self-developing, self-respecting and respecting others. But natural science is not concerned with personality, at least in this sense and in their relations; and there is a risk that when we return to the human world, we may be inclined to ignore its difference from the laboratory, and even to treat men as if they were elements or cells. It is perhaps their training which explains why some scientists are sympathetic towards communism.
Some people turn to communism because it offers them a positive faith in an age of skepticism, makes their decision for them and once accepted, relieves them of the painful task of thinking for themselves. Materialistic scientists are attracted to communism for a different reason. Its drastic methods resemble those inanimate materials with atoms and cells, manipulating and controlling them in the interest of a great overriding end. It is this control and manipulation that makes the triumphs of science possible; and it seems natural to apply a similar technique to social and political problems and so achieve more rapid and effective results than the tedious methods of persuasion allow. This technique appears to offer the quickest way to a better and more rational world and in so good a cause it seems wrong to be too tender with individual personalities and conscience.
Political and social problems can also be solved with
- the technique of control and manipulation
- tenderness
- rudeness
- Both tenderness and rudeness
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A - the technique of control and manipulation
The passage says it seems natural to apply a similar technique of control and manipulation to social and political problems, to get quicker results than persuasion allows. Tenderness is what that view rejects (“it seems wrong to be too tender”), and rudeness is not discussed.
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CUSAT CAT Integrated IPR Ph.D.
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