To suggest that man has ascended throughout history seems to also suggest that everything done in the interest of "progress" was necessary and right. Ascension takes on an almost ethereal or spiritual connation and seems oddly matched when applied to mankind....human beings capable of fault, error or sin. It also seems an odd application when it is a term applied to mankind by a scientist, Jacob Bronowski.
The issue of science and morality often came up in my humanities classroom (we used Race and Membership) whether we were dealing with the origins of race and racism, cultures of violence, WWII or immigration and citizenship. The perspectives and aspects provided in my course related to the atomic bomb, for example, sometimes clashed with the attitudes or perspective in which atomic fission and atomic fusion were taught in chemistry. This clash led to increased dialogue in the humanities classes. This is the aspect of Bronowski's documentary that caught my attention and it is what prompted me to write down the Bronowski quotes below. It is also the reason I question whether or not we have ascended or descended.
"There is no absolute knowledge - all information is imperfect."
"In the act of recognition a judgement is built in - an area of tolerance or uncertainty."
"No events can be described with zero tolerance or certainty."
"It is the tragedy of scientists that science has been used for the destruction of mankind."
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Ascent? For me, it is simple. To ascend is to rise, in this case through the ages from less sophisticated to more. Bronowski uses science as the median for progress but, as he notes with German race science, science was co-opted by misguided pseudo-scientists. His own "descent" into the gray pool at Auschwitz demonstrated the depth of human loss. Here he attributes that loss to perfection claimed by individuals who used science as their compass.
For me, Bronowski is the epicenter of our work. He thinks about what it means to be human, probes inhumanity and finds correctives to put us back on course. His work is dense, complex. The caliber of his thinking becomes the caliber of our own.
While in Brookline, we were able to learn how Bronowski connects to the work of FH, but there was also acknowledgement of how difficult a piece it is. Even for me, I had to see it a few times to understand the points he was trying to make and how it connects to our everyday existence. It's a very philosophical piece, which makes it hard to access. I wonder if there's a more contemporary source that is more accessible but that expresses the same sentiments. Or, perhaps that's just the nature of scientific writing and filmaking - these individuals tend to write and speak in a manner only understood by more left-brain oriented thinkers.
Also, while in Brookline, the conversation made me think back on teaching experiences I had related to the fields of math and/or science....
- While teaching at Prologue Alternative HS, I was asked to teach a General Science course - that I approached from a social science perspective. We talked about the etymology of the word science ("to know") and the ways in which we apply the scientific theory in our everyday lives (some funny examples came out of that one).
-While teaching at Muhammad University of Islam,I encouraged to incorporate Islamic principles into every course and where possible to remember the mantra "Islam is mathematics and mathematics is Islam." This made me stretch my imagination - imagine teaching sentences or subject verb agreement in comparison to linear equations.
- At Young Women's Leadership Charter School, some of my humanities students often made connections between what we learned vs. what they were learning in chemistry class that year or from their 9th grade earth/environmental science course. Ethics often came up as an issue.
How does that relate to Bronowski? Maybe it doesn't directly but I think that in order for teachers and students to "get him", they've also got to be able to make some real world, modern connections.
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