Abstract
IN a recent address to the Manchester and District Association of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the work of the civil engineer in relation to social and international problems, Mr. R. D. Brown urged that engineers are no better qualified for statesmanship or politics than the medical man, the lawyer, the psychologist, the physicist or the parson. Engineering science has nothing to do with solving the social, economic and political problems of mankind, and the scientific and the political minds and methods of working have nothing in common. While engineers should be mindful of their duties as citizens, they can only engage in politics if they are prepared to give up engineering altogether and devote their time and energy to a new way of life. Mr. Brown is sceptical of the value of the proposed Council of Engineers, and recommends rather that any man of science, whether an engineer or not, who desires to help in this matter to get into touch with the committee of the newly formed Division for the Study of the Social and International Relations of Science of the British Association. The committee will require all the help it can obtain, whether from engineers, chemists, biologists, publicity experts or others. Mr. Brown referred to the importance in thinking about such problems of divesting the mind of all prejudice, superstition and humbug, and of laying aside all preconceived political, social or racial notions. He considered the committee's work might prove to be the most important investigation ever undertaken by the British Association.
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Engineering and Social Science. Nature 143, 194 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143194b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143194b0