Scientists Are Lonely Men -Oliver La Farge

"It is too bad both for the scientist and the public that they are so cut off from each other. The world needs now not the mere knowledges of science, but the way of thought and discipline. It is the essence of what Hitler has set out to destroy; against it he has waged total war within his own domain. It is more than skepticism, the weighing of evidence more even than the love of truth. It is the devotion of oneself to an end which is far more important than the individual, the certainty that the end is absolutely good, not only for oneself but for all mankind, and the character to set personal advantage, comfort, and glory aside in the devoted effort to make even a little progress toward it." -1942 From: A Treasury of Science (1958, Harper & Brothers)


In philosophy, the question often debated is: If you could go back in time, and find Adolf Hitler before he became a political leader, if you killed him then, would you be doing mankind a good service? I'm thinking that the death of the person standing before you may not be a long-term solution, but just may perpetuate the problem. Someone more informed, and able to delve more deeply into this hypothetical situation, would ask the question: if you could go back in time, and find Adolf Hitler before he was imprisoned by his fellow countryman, and prevented him from being caged like an animal, would you be doing mankind a good service?