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INTRODUCTION
Science and know-how are important applications in man’s makes an attempt to exist, create and consider demand of his atmosphere. At any time because the discovery of science and its software guy has continually designed initiatives to create many systems in get to conquer nature, recreate the planet for his simplicity and benefits. Suitable from the primitive moments, guy invented bow and arrow, hearth, hoes, knives, cutlass and so on, in get to deal with the existential issues nature possesses. Even in the existing planet, the initiatives of guy are in totality geared towards the provision of foodstuff, garments and shelter and other standard amenities for his survival.
Basically, guy is ready to maneuver his way all around the cosmos and come up with scientific discoveries since of his organic endowments. Gentleman is normally endowed with intelligence. He has the mental and organic capability to forge tips and the potential to invent. The potential to invent will make him a creator or an inventor. As a result, the software of science to day-to-day lifestyle manifests in the many inventions of guy vis-à-vis the technological developments in human society. Science and know-how, for that reason, are synthetic inventions of guy fundamentally place to use for his benefits.
Gentleman, History OF SCIENCE AND Technology.
It is pertinent to mention that science does not exist outside the house the social cultural atmosphere of guy. Gentleman is the creator of science and the inventor of know-how. In actuality, guy could be regarded as the optimum expression of his atmosphere. The advancement of science and know-how is usually aimed at acquiring solutions to certain existential issues or troubles of nature in just a certain socio–cultural atmosphere. Even though the nature of science implies an aim software to universal issues and ailments, which is a deductionist method to science we can not, however, deny the actuality that it is at 1st specific at dealing with particularistic cases in just a offered atmosphere.
Traditionally, guy has performed a vital function in the advancement of science and know-how. The human society, no doubt, has long gone as a result of a sequence of evolutions, transformations and as very well as revolutions at each and every stage of its advancement. In the early Greek period, for instance, philosophy, artwork and science captivated most wide distribute awareness. Science and artwork had been element of philosophy. What existed however was speculative science. This was the period the place Thales lived. He regarded as the 1st noteworthy thinker and scientist in the western planet. He was the 1st person to predict an eclipse of the sunshine, which inevitably took spot in 585 B.C. His pupil, Anaximander, was the 1st evolutionist scientist in the western planet. He held that all living issues originated from the sea and commenced to create in the program of time into many types by suggests of adaptation to their atmosphere. He held that guy advanced from the animals. Anaximander also held that the earth was not flat but like a cylinder in shape and is acknowledged to have designed the 1st map in historical past. Pythagoras the mathematician, Democritus the atomists and Aristotle the biggest scientist in Ancient Greece, all lived at this period.(Omoregbe 2002, 177)
Religion and theology took the centre stage and turned the emphasis of curiosity in the middle ages. Ethics, literature and artwork characterized the renaissance age. However, at the emergence of Francis Bacon who laid the foundation for inductive design of science, the present day period witnessed the advancement of empirical and experimental science. This was the period the place two noteworthy doctrines emerged particularly, the Rene Descartes led Rationalism and the John Locke led Empiricism. But in the present-day period the centre of curiosity has progressively shifted to science and know-how. (Fadaunsi 1997, fifty eight).
It is essential to mention that the interior aspects and as very well as man’s non complacency and his quest for expertise in each and every of the periods in the historical past of society educated the shifts in the emphasis for advancement.
Technology is what we know as utilized science. It is the “systematic study of procedures for earning and executing issues” (Gordon 1942, twenty). In a like mind fashion, D.P Lauda and R.D Ryan (1971: fifty three) see know-how as:
Man’s effort and hard work to cope with his bodily atmosphere both equally that presented by nature and t9hat established by man’s personal technological deeds, these kinds of as towns and his makes an attempt to subdue or command that atmosphere by suggests of his creativity and ingenuity in the use of obtainable sources.
Technology is the software of the discoveries of science to enhance the ailments of human lifestyle. It is this software that results in inventions to enhance human welfare in many sectors of human lifestyle. Disciplines like Engineering, Medication, Details Technology, Electronics, Architecture, and many others. are utilized sciences.(Omoregbe 2002, 179).
The historical past of know-how extends as considerably as the ancestors of guy. Technology grows and develops hand in hand with science. Both equally of them compliment each and every other. The advancement of many applications when guy was at the primitive stage in the historical past of society is recorded to be the 1st technological revolution. By the time of the Neanderthal Gentleman, a diploma of specialization in software earning experienced been attained. The Cro–Magnon homosapiens mastered some mechanical rules in pottery earning and by the period of the Neolithic Gentleman, guy experienced rather superior in software earning crafts.(Ndubuisi 2002, 132).
By the sixteenth century, Francis Bacon advocated experimental science and suggested that experts really should study the methods of craftsmen. Technology ongoing to expand with advancement of iron bridges, steam engines and textile machinery. This period witnessed the complimentary roles of science with know-how. For instance, Edison, the inventor of the 1st useful lights utilized the scientific tips of Faraday and Henry, who experienced before experimented on electric power. Bell, the inventor of the telephone also formulated it on the scientific tips of Helmholtz.(Ndubuisi 2002, 133).
Improved Efficiency
There is no gainsaying the actuality that the revolution that usually takes spot in science and know-how in human society is by no necessarily mean feat. With the aid of know-how, guy has been ready to place to use his tips of almost a ideal, seamless society with the aid of many gizmos he develops for his benefits. The planet right now, specifically in this twenty first century, activities economic and political growths as a outcome of scientific and technological improvements. There are improvements and breakthroughs in the regions of electrical power and energy, transportation, conversation, medicine, architecture, agriculture, market, military services know-how, laptop or computer, room shuttles, biotechnology and many others.
That improvement in science and know-how has contributed to the improvement of efficiency and improved economic growth in human society is an understatement. The actuality is obvious that science and know-how has a significant interaction to productions in all sphere of human society. The industrial revolution which transpired in Europe in the 18th century marked the beginning of an economic growth and revolution. This industrial revolution confirmed a enormous social, economic, and technological change, which commenced with the introduction of steam electrical power, fuelled principally by coal. The technological and economic progresses recorded of the industrial revolution obtained momentum with the introduction of steam powered ships, boats and railways. However, at the transform of the nineteenth century, the revolution distribute in the course of Western Europe and North America, and inevitably impacting the rest of the planet. (Wikipedia)
The functions next the improved efficiency of labour characterized by the industrial revolution which experienced distribute across the planet led to the ‘second industrial revolution’ beginning all around 1870. This 2nd industrial revolution little by little grew to include things like “the chemical industries, petroleum refining and distribution, electrical industries and the automotive industries“.(Ndubuisi 2002, 151). In actuality, the increasing availability of economic petroleum merchandise also diminished the use of coal to the opportunity for industrialization.
It is for that reason important to mention that these industrial revolutions, which led to the development of many huge industrial companies with often almost, globalize global functions and passions, paved the way for the successive scientific technological revolution that emerged in the nineteen forties and 1950s. This scientific and technological revolution is as a result obvious in some countries, like the disintegrated Soviet Union and the United States of America, go to to the moon for the duration of this period. Today, other countries are next suite. In September 2008, China released her room shuttle and despatched a three guy one 7 days room delegation to the moon.
It can be witnessed from the foregoing that the indelible mark designed by the revolutions in science and know-how has affected the way guy, of the present day age, perceives the planet. The scientific and technological revolution that has taken the planet by storm right now stemmed from the industrial revolution of the 18th century. Kolawole Ogundowole (2003: 134) notes that:
In the 1st 50 percent of the twentieth century primarily for the duration of the 194s and 195s there had been essential shifts in the structure of most sciences and in the scientific action as a outcome of big scientific and specialized discoveries. This in transform led to an raise interaction of science with know-how and generation. Precisely, it was for the duration of that ten years that mankind entered the period of scientific and technological revolution.
Today, the scientific and technological revolution is maximizing efficiency of labour. It is changing the overall encounter of social content generation. It evidently has a optimistic change more than the nature, ailments and contents of labour as very well as the composition of successful forces, the social division of labour, and the sectional and occupational structure of society.
In his notion, Dryakhlov (1984: 55) defines scientific and technological revolution as:
The radical qualitative transformation and generation forces done as a outcome of the merger in between the scientific and technological revolutions and the conversion of science into a immediate successful force.
This implies that as one of the standard rules and legislation of dialectics, there exists in human developmental processes, quantitative and qualitative alterations. This affirms the materialist assertion that all the things develops from the transformation of amount into top quality. As a result, scientific and technological revolution is a particular phenomenon linked with the conversion of science into immediate successful force of the society, “the radical qualitative transformation of the structure of successful forces and the alterations in the character and written content of human labour”. (Ogundowole 2003, 138).
With the evolution and advancement of science and know-how, it has grow to be obvious that this revolution has improved generation and intake, specifically in the formulated countries of the planet, further than all anticipations of the earlier. It is as a result doable that poverty, hunger, and even unemployment on a significant scale would be a stage of historical past. This is why V.G Afanasiev (2003: 139) notes that:
Science is the generator of tips: know-how is their content, substantive embodiment although generation is the area the place the functioning of know-how occurs, the place individuals use scientific and technological achievements to obtain their essential content prosperity.
At this juncture, it is pertinent to mention that the charge of advancement of science and know-how and its startling achievements in almost each and every sphere of human lifestyle, specifically as it boosts efficiency in human society, is not devoid of its aspect outcomes. Karl Marx was one of those people who pointed it the evil inherent in the industrialization system. Marx was not, however, against the advancement of know-how. But Marx thought that the industrialization system was the evil in the dialectical development of feudal economic modes, which led to the comprehensive advancement of capitalism. Marx admitted that the industrialization of the society transpired, but it only led to the polarization of society into two key courses. Marx did not deny this industrialization, but was aggravated at the exploitation that existed in between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In accordance to Marx (1972: 183):
Industrialization engenders the polarization of societies into two courses, the bourgeois those people who personal the suggests of generation, i.e. the factories and the land, and the significantly greater proletarian functioning course who really perform the labour essential to extract a thing worthwhile from the suggests of generation.
As a immediate effect of the scientific technological revolution, Marx opined that immediate improvements in know-how still left several skilled personnel unemployed, as one agricultural and production job just after yet another was mechanized. All over again, Marx pointed out that there had been flights of thousands and thousands of unemployed individuals from rural regions or little cities to the significant towns as a outcome of the research for white collars jobs. As a result, there was the advancement of significant urban populace centers, which really led to unparalleled ailments of poverty in the slums that housed personnel for the new factories. At the exact time, the bourgeoisie course, at only a little fraction when compared to the proletariat’s dimensions turned exceedingly rich.
As a option to this condition of unequal distribution of prosperity and sheer exploitation of the capitalist technique, Marx asserted that the dialectical development, itself, is a essential precursor to the advancement of socialism and inevitably communism. Marx (1972: 209) thought that:
The industrial proletariat will inevitably create course consciousness and revolt against the bourgeoisie, main to a extra egalitarian socialist and inevitably communist state the place the personnel them selves personal the suggests of industrial generation.
Marx may possibly not be right with his belief that capitalism, which formulated as a outcome of the industrialized technological improvements, would collapse and give way to socialism and eventual communism. The truth in our planet right now shows that capitalism, as against socialism, strives and know-how is advancing. But functions in new time demonstrate that improvement in know-how has not solved most of the existential issues in our planet. Enhancements in foodstuff/agricultural know-how, for instance, have not halted the lack of foodstuff. Taken that famine is commonplace in most acquiring countries, citizens of the technological superior countries are also crying fowl with the higher charge of foodstuff goods in their society. In actuality the United Nations Organizations, early in the yr 2008, introduced that the overall planet was heading as a result of a large foodstuff disaster.
In the exact vein, improvements and revolution in science and know-how did not stop the economic recession that transpired in the United States of America in 2008. Regardless of its enhancements of efficiency, scientific and technological revolution did not stop this economic recession in the U.S which led to the loss of more than 800 thousand jobs in between January and September, 2008. The seven-hundred billion bucks economic bail out plan despatched by the erstwhile U.S president Bush and authorised by the legislature in Oct 2008 remains to be witnessed in aiding the economic transform all around of the country. Even the stimulus plan by the present US president Obama has not designed important contribution to the US financial system.
Likewise, the revolution in science and know-how has not stopped the dying of a amount of small youngsters in China more than the melamine contamination of the little one milk and other diary merchandise. Hence, in spite of its potentials in maximizing efficiency, its outcomes on labour, human lifestyle, career loss, could sometime be devastating.
Summary
We can not deny the good that the improvements in science and know-how have finished to guy in almost each and every element of his lifestyle. We can not also rule out the actuality that guy is the instrument of change in the scientific technological revolution. In get terms, science and technological developments can not be designed doable devoid of guy remaining at the centre of its generation and inventions. This will make B.M Kedrov and S. Shukhardin (2003: 139) think about that “scientific and technological revolution is an integral phenomenon encompassing the entire ‘man–science–production’ technique”.
We ought to however emphasize that science and know-how is like a double–edge sword. It has both equally optimistic and damaging sides. When its results has greatly enhanced the top quality of human lifestyle, its damaging aspect is remarkably devastating to human lifestyle.
Gentleman faces really serious threat of the destructive aspect of know-how in the regions of air air pollution, air pollution of seas and rivers, the depletion of the ozone layer, toxic squander, and many others. The destructive outcomes of know-how on mankind could also be witnessed in the regions of the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, in certain the manufacture of chemical weapons, atomic bombs, biological and nuclear weapons.(Omoregbe 2002, 181).
The historical past of present day planet has demonstrated that potent countries that have formulated these weapons of mass destruction are usually tempted to use it on weaker countries. The atomic weapon of mass destruction utilized by the United States of America, for the duration of the 2nd World War, more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan is nonetheless fresh new in our memory. This is why presumably most other countries, like Iran, Korean, India and many others., are acquiring nuclear weapons for them selves in get to secure them selves and wade off the threat of attack.
There are many other threats that the improvements and revolution in science and know-how pose to mankind, but these destructive things of science and know-how are not adequate excuses to deny the evident that almost all people any place in the planet has benefited positively from it. It has enhanced man’s ailment of lifestyle by earning the requirements of lifestyle, like foodstuff shelter garments transportation conversation overall health and many others., extra effortlessly obtainable.
It is for that reason our placement that the optimistic things that can be derived from the science and know-how are of wonderful great importance to guy. Gentleman ought to for that reason assure that science and know-how ought to be to his services and oriented towards human affairs. Gentleman ought to keep away from the erroneous use of know-how as this may possibly direct to his self destruction. The erroneous use of science and know-how poses extra really serious threats to planet peace which guy has been making an attempt to achieve because the beginning of the planet.
REFERENCES
Afanasiev V,G, quoted from Kolawole Ogundowole (2003), Nature of Gentleman:
History and Philosophy of Science in 10 Modules, Lagos,
Right Counsels Confined.
Dryakhlov N.,(1984), The Scientific and Technological Revolution: Its Role in
Modern World, Moscow, Progress Publishers.
Fadaunsi Ayo, (1997), Science and Technology as Claims and Threats to
Societies” in The Nigerian Journal of Philosophy,
Division of Philosophy, University of Lagos.
Gordon G., (1942), What Took place in History, London, Oxford University Press.
Kedrov B.M and Shukhardin S. quoted from Kolawole Ogundowole (2003),
Nature of Gentleman: History and Philosophy of Science in 10
Modules, Lagos, Right Counsels Confined.
Lauda, D.P and Ryan, R.D, (1971), Advancing Technology, Iowa, W.M.C. Brown
Company Pub,ishers.
Marx Karl, (1972), Financial, Class and Social Revolution, London, Nelson
Publishers.
Ndubuisi Friday,(2002), “The Increase and Development of the Several Regions of
Technology” in Kolawole Ogundowole (ed), Gentleman, History
and Philosophy of Science: A Compendium of Readings,
Lagos, Obaroh and Ogbinaka Publihers Confined.
Omoregbe Joseph, (2002), “Science and Technology in the Support of Gentleman” in
Kolawole Ogundowole (ed), Gentleman, Historyn and
Philosophy of Science: A Compendium of Readings,
Lagos, Obaroh and Ogbinaka Publihers Confined.
Wikipedia, “Industrial Revolution”, http.www.thefreeencyclopedia.htp
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Source by Oseni Taiwo Afisi
