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J. Robert Oppenheimer, a leading physicist in the Manhattan Project, recognized that scientific inquiry and discovery could no longer be separated from their effect on political decision-making, social responsibility, and human endeavor in general. He openly addressed issues of common concern and as a scientist accepted the responsibility brought about by nuclear physics.
This collection of essays and speeches, only a few of which have been previously published, presents an extraordinary thinker and scientist as well as a compassionate human being. No issue is too small or too large if it is in some way connected to the emergence of a weapon as terrible and powerful as the atom bomb. Oppenheimer discusses the shift in scientific awareness and its impact on education, the question of openness in a society forced to keep secrets, the conflict between individual concerns and public and political necessity, the future of science and its effects on future politics---in short, thecommon and uncommon sense we find in our modern day reality.
Uncommon Sense presents a responsible scientist and a concerned man who foresaw the problems the discovery of fission would create. And we should no neglect to read between the lines: The peak of Oppenheimer's career coincided with the McCarthy era, the repercussions of which strongly affected his personal and professional life. The themes of openness and freedom becomes, therefore, recurring concerns in this collection of essays and speeches.
Table des matières
1 Travelling to a Land We Cannot See.- 2 The Open Mind.- 3 Science in Being, Research and the Liberal University.- 4 The Consequences of Action.- 5 I. Uncommon Sense.- II. An Open House.- 6 Prospects in the Arts and Sciences.- 7 An Inward Look.- 8 Tradition and Discovery.- 9 Progress in Freedom.- 10 On Science and Culture.- 11 The Power to Act The Scientific Revolution and its Effects on Democratic Institutions.- 12 A World Without War.- 13 L'Intime et le Comun-the Intimate and the Open.- 14 To Live with Ourselves.- 15 Physics and Man's Understanding, For the Smithsonian Institution Bicentennial.- 16 A Time in Need.- Acknowledgements and Bibliography.
