How To Be Human: Science
and Ethics
We feel that even when all possible scientifi c questions
have been answered, the problems of life have not been
put to rest.
Ludwig WittgensteinThe allure of cosmic religion is not new. Way back in ancient
Athens an optimism not dissimilar to our own was in the air.
The movement now called pre-Socratic natural philosophy
was becoming known for its investigations of the world. And
these ancient ‘scientists’ had good reason to be wowed by their
achievements. Its amazing power was being made manifest in
the construction of the Parthenon – a technological wonder
that has inspired awe for 2500 years.
One should not underestimate the remarkably prescient
nature of their discoveries too. Parmenides realised that the
moon refl ects the light of the sun. Democritus postulated the
basic units of nature as atoms existing in a void. Pythagoras,
who may not have originated his celebrated theorem, may have
worked out that day and night were far better explained by the
earth going round the sun, not vice versa. Empedocles argued
that the natural world was made up of elements, and although
he considered that there were only four (earth, fi re, air and
water), he was right in presuming that the material world could
be explained by a continual fl ux of elemental integration and
disintegration.
These searching minds also anticipated many of the philo-
sophical problems with which science wrestles to this day.
Democritus, for example, knew that there was power in his
postulate that atoms formed matter and that matter, in turn,