” Meanwhile science as technique was building up in practical men a quite different outlook from any that was to be found among theretical philosphers. Technique conferred a sense of power : man is now much less at the mercy of his environment than he was in former times. But the power conferred by technique is social, not individual ; an average individual wrecked on a desert island could have achieved more in the seventeenth century than he could now. Scientific technique requires the co-opereation of a large number of individuals organized under a single direction. Its tendency , therefore, is against anarchism and even individualism, since it demands a well-knit social structure. Unlike religion, it is ethically neutral : it assures men that they can parform wonders , but does not tell them what wonders to perform. In this way it is incomplete. In practice, the purposes to which scientific skill will be devoted depend largely on chance. The men at the head of the vast organizations which it neccessitates can , within limits, turn it this way or that as they please. The power impulse thus has a scope which it never had before. The philosophies that have been inspired by scientific technique are power philosophies, and tend to regard everything non-human as mere raw material. Ends are no longer considered ; only the silfulness of the process is valued. This also is a form of madness. It is , in our day , the most dangerous form , and the one against which a sane philosophy should provide an antidote. “
– Bertrand Russell | Year 1946
