The Present State of the Sciences: The Exact Natural Sciences [1930b]

Abstract

A description of the contemporary state of the exact sciences has not always presented as difficult a task as it does in our time. Over the course of the development of a science there are periods of ascent and periods of lingering at a plateau. Both are essential for the progress of science, for although the ascent constitutes the period of actual growth, the time of quiet elaboration, of the gradual maturation of newly made discoveries, is equally necessary for the internal consolidation of the whole developmental process. The distinctive rhythm of all life, the step-by-step progress, in which ascent and a time for maturing alternate with one another, appears to be intrinsically necessary for the over-all development of sociological phenomena, to which the growth of the natural sciences bears a living testimony. After the steep ascent accomplished in the era of such scientists as Galileo and Newton, the succeeding century coincided with a period of undisturbed consolidation, but about one hundred years ago a new ascent was begun which even today has not yet flattened out into a horizontal curve. On the contrary, over approximately the last three decades we may observe a substantially steeper ascent of the curve than was to be seen before, for our epoch is characterized by overly hasty development, by the appearance of totally new and revolutionary theories of fundamental significance, by the amassing of new discoveries, so that the contemporary observer barely recalls the impression of steady progress and finds the image of growth by fits and starts to accord far better with his experience.