But if one happens to be a theoretical man yet also a man of honor, who needs the good opinion others have of him, a complication enters the picture.
His own standards are the law he obeys, and his conscience is the most exacting judge of his integrity. The honest man punishes himself for such failures. When one has a true vocation, to fall short of its demands is unacceptable, even though it is unavoidable. One hesitates even to call these lesser loves, let alone infidelities most people value them above the work they happen to do to earn their living, and indeed to consider your job more important than your family will rightly mark you to your fellows as a sorry excuse for a human being.īut of course there are jobs and then there are callings, as there is the democratic understanding of life’s responsibilities and there is the noble understanding of one’s appointed task. He will love his wife and children, his country, his reputation. He is bound to have other, competing loves, which adulterate the loftiest vocation, however dedicated to it he might be. The man who loves knowing alone is a creature of fantasy, a chimera, an impossibility. This makes them god-like, so that they need nothing else - certainly not the glint of admiration or envy in other men’s eyes.Īnd yet perfection is not to be expected even from the most high-minded among us. Like Aristotle’s theoretical man in the Nicomachean Ethic s, scientists are said to live for the unsurpassed pleasure of knowing the highest things in the universe, those that cannot be other than they are. Yet John Milton called the craving for fame “ that last infirmity of noble mind” and while such infirmity might easily be forgiven poets, who are notorious for their moral weakness, we have become accustomed to thinking of scientists as free of such all-too-human frailties. Honor of this order is not a paltry thing.
To one who opens new mental continents for further exploration, and exploitation, the supreme accolades rightly belong.
To uncover some eternal truth that has been carefully concealed from ordinary sight by Nature or whatever gods there be, and to enjoy the lasting esteem accorded the world-altering thinkers - these are the motive forces behind the most serious and accomplished scientific lives. What trace of his earthly passage can a man of genius hope will remain after his death? For a great scientist, it is almost certainly a discovery that advances human understanding a step further from ignorance and confusion.
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