Before I start the topic,
I need to ask myself a question, "What is the purpose of our life ?", "What
is the main goal in our life ?". We all agree that in search of happiness
is a vital goal; some may say that love is vital, friendship is vital,
health is vital, or even family is vital in our lives. Through out the
centuries, many great philosophers have been arguing the goal and purpose
of live, and many also argued about true happiness and so fort.
Now, in this sophisticated
society, science has changed us a lot, and many think that science is the
only solution to upgrade our living. Since science has changed us a lot,
but does it upgraded us ? or fulfilled the goal and purpose of live we
have searched for centuries ?
But the result is that the
technological advances of the 20th century, impressive though they may
be, have not perceptibly improved our collective health and happiness.
Indeed, many social critics argue that the quality of our lives and our
sense of personal fulfillment have declined rather than risen. This is
the paradox of progress (Weiten/Lloyd, 1994). This has also confirmed that
Darwin's hypothesis is wrong; we are not improving, rather, we are descending.
After the industrial revolution in the 19th century in England, our environment
had started to become worst, the ozone layer is getting thinner, we suffer
not air or water pollution, but also sound pollution, and even the most
recent kind of pollution, visual pollution. Thus, did science improved
our health ? No.
Many skyscrapers had built
and still building, society tend to make us more closer, but the more we
close from one another, we feel more alone and insecure. After science
had developed, more statuses arise, and we felt more pressure. Science
had made us see through the inequality of our society, and the more we
saw, the more we feel angry. Thus, did science improved our happiness ?
No.
People's lives tended to
be clearly laid out for them. Before science has become one of our lives,
we tend to be more individualized, we do all work by ourselves or with
others, and this had also improved our relationship with our neighbors
or family. But after science had become one of our lives, we tend to be
more lazy and we relied more on our man made machines. We also tend to
close ourselves from others, became an uncaring, self-centered person.
This is also the cause of social stratification and result of Gesellschaft,
a type of social organization by which people has weak social ties and
considerable self-interest.
From Fromm's analysis, people
had relatively little personal freedom in a static society. When our society
evolved and evolved, we tend to stress more on freedom. But the more science
had developed, the more we feel ourselves restrained. Our society tend
to put us in a so called "freedom" society, and politician said that we
have strive for many freedom. But the truth is no, society tend to put
us in an organized manner, we do things in an organize way, when we skate,
we tend to skate counter-clockwise; when we take a train, we need to queue
up, etc. All laws had put us in restrain. I think our origins are freer, and I think this is why they are more creative, and had such a Golden
Period. I'm saying when man had started, like the Mayan people and etc.
While our personal freedom
has been growing, our old sources of emotional sustenance and security
have diminished in effectiveness. How can we have freedom if we felt insecurity
? How can we have healthy emotions if we felt insecure ? And if we felt
insecure, how can we have happiness ? No.
Science had put us more
closer to decrease our insecurity by inventing telephones, cell phones,
telegram, fax machines, and all sorts of communicational equipment's. But
we still feel insecure, and lonely, and scared.
Today we face a vast array
of decisions about how to lead our lives. And, rather than embrace our
increased freedom, many of us find it scary and threatening. And
now, the basic challenge of life becomes the search for a sense of direction.
Can you imagine how man had fallen ? This is all because of the development
of science.
So, what is the purpose
of science ? Is science there to improve our living ? Or it's just for making
money ? Or it's just for self-improvement (We feel good when we know science)
? What happened to our happiness, our freedom, and all the things we human
searching for ?
Before we take science as
our major substance, please ask, what is the purpose of science ? Does
it really connected to our ideals like the purpose of life ?
Dennis Yap Tsong Hsih
