Science and the New Culture

Leonardo, Vol. 3, pp. 447-451. Pergamon Press 1970. Printed in Great Britain DOCUMENTS-DOCUMENTS The Editors willpublish in this section ofLeonardo,from time to time, documents that may cast a new light on significant aspects ofcontemporary fine art. Such texts may be in the form ofmanijestos, 'conversations' between artists, reprints ofarticles long out ofprint, translations, etc. Readers are invited to recommend to the Editors materialfor possible publication in this section. Des textes capables de montrer sous un jour nouveau certains aspects particulierement intiressants de l'expression artistique contemporaine paraitront de temps it autre dans cette section de Leonardo. Ces textes seront soit des manijestes, soit des conversations entre artistes, soit des reimpressions d'articles depuis longtemps epuises, des traductions, etc. Les lecteurs sont invites it signaler it la Redaction des textes de ce genre, pour une eventuelle publication dans cette section. SCIENCE AND THE NEW CULTURE* Malcolm S. Adiseshiah** CONVERGENCE OF AIMS I begin with the convergence of aims between Gujarat Vidyapith and Unesco. Gandhi, the founding father of this great institution, set forth its purpose in the 17 November 1920 issue of Young India: 'The Gujarat Vidyapith does not propose merely to feed on or repeat the ancient cultures. It rather hopes to build a new culture based on the traditions of the past and enriched by the experience oflater times. It stands for the synthesis of the different cultures that have come to stay in India, that have influenced Indian life, and that, in their turn have themselves been influenced by the spirit of the soil. This synthesis will naturally be of the Swadeshi type, where each culture is assured its legitimate place.' A quarter of a century later, the founding fathers of Unesco meeting in London, proclaimed the birth of this international organization, which comprises today you and all the free and independent peoples and governments of our world whose aims extend and universalize those of this institution. The Governments adhering to this Constitution on behalf of their peoples declare: 'That ignorance ofeach other's ways and lives has *This paper, here abridged, was presented to the Gandhi Centenary Conference on Science, Education and Non- Violence at Gujarat Vidyapith University, Ahmedabad-14, India, on 14 October 1969. ** Deputy Director-General, Unesco, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75-Paris 7, France. (Received 17 October 1969.) 447 been a common cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war; 'That the wide diffusion of culture, and the education of humanity for justice and liberty and peace are indispensable to the dignity of man and constitute a sacred duty which all the nations must fulfil in a spirit of mutual assistance and concern; 'That a peace based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of governments would not be a peace which could secure the unanimous, lasting and sincere support of the peoples of the world, and that the peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. 'For these reasons, the States Parties to this Constitution, believing in full and equal opportunities for education for all, in the unrestricted pursuit ofobjective truth, and in the free exchange of ideas and knowledge, are agreed and determined to develop and to increase the means of communication between their peoples and to employ these means for the purposes of mutual understanding and truer and more perfect knowledge ofeach other's lives.' As we meet here to take counselcollectivelyaround the theme, Science, Education and Non-violence, these two statements of aims bring us a convergent sense of science as the unrestricted pursuit of objective truth, of education as the full and equal sharing of such pursuit and their results leading to the new culture of man, based on the traditions of thepast and enriched by the experience ofthe present. 448 Malcolm S. Adiseshiah For Unesco, this new culture has a further forwardlooking dimension, that of organizing and ordering of the future. But the real convergence ofGujarat Vidyapith and Unesco, of India and our world, lies in the baffling problem of how to transform these...