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Physics and Human Rights: Reflections on the Past and the Present Joel L

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Physics and Human Rights: Reflections on the Past and the Present Joel L Frühjahrstagung Physics and Human Rights: Reflections on the Past and the Present Joel L. Lebowitz Max von Laue was exceptional colleagues. To quote Einstein: “We leadership role in creating a better among leading scientists in his must not allow ourselves to be sur- world. To quote from a 1981 state- behavior during the Nazi period prised if the scientists are no excep- ment by Andrei Sakharov (he and 1933-1945. “While many tion (in the great majority) and if Einstein are two of my “heroes”): respectable scientists yielded to they are different, it is not attributa- “Because of the international na- political pressure... Laue was ble to intellectual capability but hu- ture of our profession, scientists neither to be threatened nor man stature, as in the case of Laue. form the one real worldwide com- bribed into subservience...Laue It was particularly interesting in his munity which exists today. There is was a great patriot... but [his case to observe how he tore himself no doubt about this with respect to sense of justice] was even loose step by step from the traditi- the substance of science: Schrödin- stronger... To all of us minor ons of the herd under the effect of a figures the very existence of a strong feeling of justice.” MAN of Laue’s statue and bearing This quotation is from a letter of was an enormous comfort” [1]. Einstein to Born in 1944 [2]. In fact Einstein was already so discouraged hank you President Bradshaw, with the way intellectuals, inclu- Professor Freiesleben, and ding scientists, behaved during the Tmembers of the council of the first world war that in 1917, while DPG, for establishing this program living in Berlin, he wrote to a friend of von Laue lectures and for invit- in Zurich, “How is it at all possible ing me to be the first speaker. I feel that this culture-loving era could be very honored but also very cons- so monstrously amoral? More and cious of the responsibility involved more I come to value charity and in talking not about von Laue’s love of one’s fellow beings above scientific work, which would be everything else.... All our lauded Joel L. Lebowitz easy, but about memorializing his technological progress – our very courageous humanitarian stand civilization – is like the axe in the ger’s equation and the formula E = during the Nazi period. As I wrote hand of the pathological criminal” mc2 are equally valid on all conti- you, Prof. Bradshaw, it is my hope [3]. Later, in 1949, he wrote “My nents. But the integration of the that establishing a memorial to von scientific work is motivated by an scientific community has inevitably Laue by the DPG will not only irresistible longing to understand progressed beyond narrow profes- honor a great physicist, but will the secrets of nature and by no sional interests and now embraces a serve as an inspiration for scientists other feelings. My love for justice broad range of universal issues, in- now and in the future to stand up and the striving to contribute to- cluding ethical questions. And I be- for the humanitarian ideals which wards the improvement of human lieve this trend should and will we all share. I will try, as best as I conditions are quite independent continue” [5]. can, to further that goal. from my scientific interests” [4]. Sakharov wrote this statement Keeping that in mind, my talk What I would like to do in this while he was in exile in Gorky in will focus on the moral and social talk is to argue that even if that was 1981. It was smuggled out and read responsibilities of scientists then the case for scientists in the past, at a meeting in honor of his 60th Prof. Dr. Joel L. Le- and now. While the problems facing the history of the twentieth century birthday in New York to which, of bowitz, Department us today are certainly very different shows us that such a separation course, the Soviet authorities did of Mathematics and from those facing von Laue and between our science and our mo- not permit him to come. I would Physics, Rutgers University, Piscata- others during the Nazi period, the rals is not only undesirable but also like to extend Sakharov’s statement way, New Jersey, basic moral issues are unchanged; very dangerous. Instead we need to about the special role and responsi- USA. e-mail: lebo- in fact they are eternal. We can find a way to combine our science bility of scientists by again quoting [email protected] therefore still learn much from von with moral principles, both for the Einstein. “Although it is true that it gers.edu – Based loosely on the Max Laue’s principled moral response at sake of our own souls and also for is the goal of science to discover von Laue lecture gi- that time, a response which distin- the sake of the future of humanity. rules which permit the association ven at the German guished him from many of his con- By developing a moral vision inspi- and foretelling of facts, this is not Physical Society’s temporaries. red by science and applying it to its only aim. It also seeks to reduce annual meeting in I wish I could say that von our actions we can hope to avoid the connections discovered to the Dresden, March 2000 Laue’s moral stand came from his repetition in the new century of the smallest possible number of mutual- being a scientist: a Nobel prize win- horrors of the last one. I would like ly independent conceptual ele- ning physicist. Unfortunately, that to argue further that scientists, who ments. ... whoever has undergone is not the case, as is clear from the contributed much to those horrors, the intense experience ... is moved very different, less honorable cour- have both special responsibilities by profound reverence for the ratio- se followed by most of his scientific and special opportunities to take a nality made manifest in existence. Physikalische Blätter 56 (2000) Nr. 7/8 51 0031-9279/00/0707-51 $17.50+50/0 © WILEY-VCHVerlag GmbH, D-69451 Weinheim, 2000 Frühjahrstagung ... and thereby attains that humble In fact, this race between creation some new ones. While there have attitude of mind towards the gran- and destruction will continue, even been some positive political chan- deur of reason incarnate in existen- intensify, in the future. ges, there has been no change in ce, and which, in its profoundest We here, in Western Europe, the our basic natures and the progress depths, is inaccessible to man” [6]. U. S. and a few other places, live as in prosperity, freedom and toleran- Science, viewed as a search for if on a blessed island where a large ce existing in the “developed” coun- understanding the grand universe number of people, though certainly tries today, of which we can be just- in which we find ourselves, forms a not all, enjoy economic prosperity, ly proud, does not assure us of con- basis on which scientists can and political freedom and personal tinuing progress. All one has to do should develop a moral vision. This is to consider events in Chechnya, is a vision inspired by science of an in Kosovo, in Iraq, in most of Afri- unimaginably grand universe of ca, in Afghanistan, and in Tibet, to which living beings and particularly realize that humanity, ourselves in- conscious ones, like us humans, are cluded, is still deep in the woods. a very small but unique component. We are still in many ways just na- By using the scientific method we ked apes walking around with cel- have been able to discover, under- lular telephones in one hand and stand and appreciate the great va- atomic ray guns in the other. It is riety of levels, from the submicros- far from clear whether the race bet- copic to the supergalactic, existing ween the forces of destruction and in nature. This variety, together those of creation, which we barely with the rich complexity of each le- won in the twentieth, is going to be vel, as evidenced by life on this our won at all in the twenty-first. planet, presents us with a universe As put by Einstein, “The existen- far surpassing in grandeur any al- ce and validity of human rights are ternative nonscientific picture pro- not written in the stars. The ideals duced by our imagination, itself one concerning the conduct of men to- of the most complex parts of the ward each other and the desirable same universe. We scientists are Max von Laue, * 9.10 1879, † 24.4.1960, structure of the community have really privileged to be able to cap- (Foto: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives) been conceived and taught by en- ture, however hazily, some glimpse lightened individuals in the course of the laws unifying this variety. opportunities, such as have never of history. Those ideals and convic- This scientific perspective makes existed before. However, we know tions which resulted from historical differences between people based what happened in the last century, experience, from the craving for be- on nationality, race, religious belief which also started out rather well. auty and harmony, have been readi- or gender entirely trivial, while ma- But then came what can only be de- ly accepted in theory by man – and king very special and significant the scribed, in retrospect, as the totally at all times, have been trampled things we humans have in common, senseless catastrophe of World War upon by the same people under the including the ability to comprehend I, with its until then unparalleled pressure of their animal instincts.
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