Abstract
IN our age the idea of intellectual liberty is under attack fromHftfo directions. On one hand, there are its theoretical enemies, the apologists of totalitar-ianism and on the other, its immediate practical enranies monopoly and bureaucracy (“The Prevention of Mterature.” By George Orwell. (Polemic No. 2.) London: Rodney Phillips and Co., 1946. 2s. 6d.). The independence of the writer and the artist are being eaten away by vague economic forces and also undermined by those who should be its defenders. Underlying the attacks on freedom of thought and of the Press is the dangerous proposition that freedom is undesirable and that intellectual honesty is a form of anti-social selfishness. The enemies of intellectual liberty try to present their case as a plea for discipline versus individualism, leaving in the background that the issue is truth versus untruth. Totalitarianism, whether political or religious, exerts its greatest pressure on the intellectual at the point where literature and politics cross. The exact sciences are not, so far, menaced to the same extent, yet some scientific workers seem to think that the destruction of liberty is of no importance so long as their own line of work is unaffected. Even totalitarian States tolerate the scientific worker for the moment because his work is recognized by the rulers as necessary, if only to prepare for war. But when the totalitarian State will be well established, this may not be so. If, therefore, the man of science would guard the integrity of science, he should develop some kind of solidarity with his literary colleagues. In Great Britain, broadly speaking, there is liberty; but there is the sinister suggestion that the conscious enemies of liberty are those to whom liberty ought to mean much.
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Freedom of Intellectual Liberty. Nature 158, 372–373 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/158372d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/158372d0