Social, cultural and religious constraints to freedom of scholarship and science

Abstract

The scientific worldview and the value placed on individual freedoms, concepts which have matured over the past three centuries, have greatly contributed to human progress. In a world characterised by widely different cultural, social and economic trajectories of development and by imperialistic attitudes to human progress, the application of these modern concepts have regrettably also given rise to the most devastating threats to survival of our planet. It is these paradoxical effects of “progress” and the balance between them that account for a diversity of constraints to freedom of science and scholarship. As with other “ideologies” the balance is tipped in an unfavourable direction when the approach to application becomes “totalitarian”. Human progress and global welfare are dependent on a new and deeper understanding of forces creating and sustaining intercultural conflict and on endeavours to overcome these by promoting wisdom, humility and foresight in the application of knowledge for the longterm benefits of our world.

Key words:

• Science
• freedom
• constraints
• global village