Literature and the Exact Sciences

Bibliographic Data

ID4386662
AuthorsMichel Serres, Roxanne Lapidus
Year1989
Volume18
Issue2
Pages3
Publication date1989-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSubStance (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0049-2426 • E-ISSN: 1527-2095
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/3685308
OpenAlexW2315909238
LanguageEN
Citations received10

I believe that every body of literature, and more broadly, the sum of all academic, literary and popular traditions, anecdotes and songs, old wives' tales, sayings and cliches, beliefs, myths, languages, and even religions, form a sort of reserve, a stock, the local treasure of ethnic groups, of cultures, of diverse groups, and that these constitute, in addition, the global treasure of mankind, accumulated in a fluctuating and unstable way throughout history and time. This immense reserve of intelligence and language, of experience, of errors and attempts, seems to me to be henceforth endangered, just as the evolutionary stock of species in the primitive forests and the changing treasure of the animal species are on the point of disappearing. Time is in danger. In danger, first of all, for an ordinary reason: the harsh competition between local strains, which destroy themselves as well as others. This death is neither a fact of life, as is believed, nor the guarantee of expansion, of power. Worse, the recent appropriation by a single culture of the majority of the media, of the means of communication and of the stockpiles of information, precipitates the sacking of cultural treasures. Some works are already in ashes or inaccessible in the jungle conditions of war; they will be completely destroyed under the domination of a single cultural type. I hope to die before hearing only a single language spoken in the world. Such a world will be a barbarous wasteland, unliveable. Imagine our planet inhabited exclusively by a single species-by ferns, only, or by billions of lizards. One end of the world like another would be rung in, with the total victory of the strongest: the entire earth invaded by identical ants. By a single way of living and of speaking. Time is in danger, subsequently and especially, for a very new reason: the crushing of all cultures by the culture that is led astray by the exact sciences. The exact sciences take all the places and soon all the space: money, professional openings, techniques, research, politics, power, the religious confidence of the population. Tomorrow the world will not speak

Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Engineering · Philosophy · Science Education and Perceptions

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