Study of Science Through History Urged by Cohen

The education of professional scientists should include the study of science as "a subject of humane dimensions," I. Bernard Cohen '37, associate professor of the History of Science, said yesterday.

"I plead for a return to the humanities, but not merely the old humanities," he asserted in an article for the New York Herald Tribune. "I plead for the humanistic study of science through its history, its cultural contacts, its humane aspects," he said.

"If science is presented as a body of facts," he continued, "it is dehumanized and dull; but if it is presented as the product of the creative imagination, then, through the interaction of man and nature, the striving for truth and order and beauty makes of science a worthy subject for the humanistic education of the twentieth century."

Would Control Applications of Science

Cohen added that it is "foolish to lament the passing of the ancient humanities, nor should we wish to stop the progress of science, which we cannot. But we can control the applications made of scientific discoveries and we can ensure that those who practice science be not cultural barbarians."

With a "humanistic" study of science, Cohen is "sure" that scientists "will then have sympathy--otherwise wholly lacking--for other areas in which the creative imagination of man has been active."