Pusey Speech Attacks Emphasis on Science

President Pusey warned that "the world's current preoccupation with science" might "effect a monstrous distortion within the fabric of learning" in a Convocation address he delivered Saturday at the University of Delhi, India.

After receiving an honorary Doctor of Letters degree, Pusey told the Convocation that there is worldwide worry among university people that a conjunction of material need and scientific triumph has set loose in contemporary society a force which now poses a serious threat to humane values."

The impact of science and technology has far from run its course, he continued. He said that men are coming to a clearer realization that the advance of applied science is not necessarily a complete blessing.

"The trouble, of course, is not with science, but only with the use we make of science. But I am confident it is your deep hope, as it is ours, that the scientist as human will presently outstrip the scientist who is simply the builder of a more efficient tool," he said.

Pusey cited government pressure as another serious problem facing universities. Although Harvard receives about a fifth of its annual income from the Federal Government, he pledged that the University is "fiercely determined" not to be controlled by government.

Education's final and most important victories will not be in science or technology, he concluded, but in bringing "light into the soul" and achieving "a redeemed order of relationship among men."

The Convociation address came near the mid-point of the three-week General Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which Pusey is attending in New Delhi.