September 22, 2020, Hokkaido University The recruitment ceremony for the 7th batch of Ambitious Leader's Program Fostering Future Leaders to Open New Frontiers in Materials Science (ALP) was held. ALP is an educational program that fosters human resources who study cross-disciplinary studies centered on material science, cultivate high abilities as members of society, and who will play an active role internationally in a wide range of fields such as not only academic and research institutions but also private companies after obtaining a degree. In March 2020, the subsidy period as a subsidy project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ended, but it has been decided to continue to work as a project of Hokkaido University. The venue was the large conference room of the School of Science Main Building, which has a history of 90 years. The four graduate students who were hired as the 7th cohort were handed "Program Student Certificates" by Executive Director Akira Hasegawa (Program Director, Vice President). After that, Executive Director. Hasegawa gave a welcome seminar titled "Order Studies of Science." The contents are summarized and introduced in a digest.
*Titles are current at the time of the hiring ceremony.
I want you to continue to cherish the interest you had when you were young.
This is Hasegawa. I have served as Vice President for three and a half years, but I will be retiring tomorrow. This will be my last job as ALP director. I am deeply moved to speak in front of everyone at such a turning point. Congratulations to all the 7th generation students on their adoption.
Youthful interests come back in the end, taking many forms throughout life. As you continue to study at ALP, your interest in material science as a foundation will probably change through many experiences and various social trainings. However, as I get older, I'm sure it will come back in a different form. So I hope that you will continue to cherish the concerns that you have now.
The need to think that there is order in science
Now, I would like to talk about today's theme, "The Order of Science." My specialty is legal philosophy. Legal philosophy has two sides. One is the history of legal thought, which explores what philosophers have been thinking since ancient Greece. The other is theoretical philosophy. what is that law? Or what is justice? It is an academic area that considers such problems.
What I am going to talk about now is the latter, but I would like to remind you of the need to think of science as being orderly. In fact, your scientific endeavors, truth-seeking, study, and research should be supported by a certain order, and you need to pursue science while making the most of that order.
What is reflective intelligence
Introspective intelligence is said to be important in ALP. I will talk while understanding that introspective intelligence in my own way. Introspection, reflection is expressed in English, but it shows that you think through dialogue with others rather than thinking by yourself. Also, have a critical spirit toward your own actions and try to push them away. Then, you will turn your attention to the environment that surrounds you, or the way human society should be. I understand that it is important to consider the surrounding environmental conditions, historical conditions, and other such things from a bird's-eye view while proceeding with one's own research. It is important to have a point of view that never looks at yourself.
Next, if that is the case, naturally it will be important to compare the relationship between your own research and the same specialized area, other specialized areas including the humanities and social sciences, or social common sense. increase. By turning our attention to society, we can obtain clues to rediscover ourselves. Therefore, introspective intelligence can be said to be the ability to interact with society, including the self, and with the natural world. The ability to reconsider science through communication in the broadest sense of the word is introspective intelligence.
Institutional Conditions in Science, and What Is Freedom?
Well, in the midst of scientific inquiry, there are actually institutional conditions. This system is not necessarily legal. It can be said that holding a recruitment ceremony in this way is also an institutional framework. Alternatively, ALP also has a curriculum and various rules. To a greater or lesser extent, it is true that systems have become a very important framework for human beings. Human beings create systems and govern themselves by those systems. Naturally, science is also related to institutional conditions in this broad sense.
We turn to order, which is part of today's theme. There is no doubt that science is a free and creative human endeavor. It is precisely because of this freedom that we are able to conduct diverse research. Without freedom, scientific inquiry may be constrained and politically dictated, or socially dictated. If you look back in history, there have been many such facts, like Galileo. However, science is free in relation to truth, and the true value of science lies in the free pursuit of truth. I think this is the basic idea.
What is this "freedom"? The most important freedom, especially in the legal or political realm, is called passive freedom, which means not being interfered by others. For example, there is interference from political power, but it is free. Or it is free, although interfered with by social public opinion. In that sense, negative freedom is important to prevent any undue intervention or interference.
この「消極的」というのは、普段私たちが普段使う言葉、「積極的」「消極的」ではありません。あくまで他者から干渉を受けないという意味での自由です。だから、その中身はすべてオープンです。表現の自由、言論の自由、それから議論の自由、集会、結社の自由。あるいは信仰の自由、思想の自由。そして学問の自由です。それらの自由が、近代以降、現在に至るまで消極的自由と表現され、これを保障するということが一番の目的とされてきました。
In an environment in which academic freedom in the form of negative freedom is socially guaranteed, researchers should work proactively and with introspective intelligence. Knowledge then grows and deepens into wisdom. I think that this is one way of the order of the greatest meaning, the order of science.
About scientific ethics and morals
Furthermore, within the order of science there are ethics, morals, and laws. What is scientific ethics? There seems to be various things. Pursuing truth, developing knowledge with rigorous systematization, and working for the well-being of mankind—these beliefs motivate individuals toward science. On the other hand, don't forget morality. This is a constraint condition for scientists to conduct scientific activities correctly with each other. They are further divided into internal and external constraints. Internal does not include compulsion, and external includes certain compulsion.
Here's an example. This is the relationship between medicine and the question of whether genetic manipulation can be performed, which is an important issue in the field of life science. Without guidelines, medical safety cannot be maintained. This is not only related to science, but also morality, and I think it can be said that it is a very important external social condition for science to function properly. There are many other moral considerations, such as the spread of AI technology. Law is also important. Laws, such as compensation for damages and penalties for infringing on the rights and interests of others, and regulations for handling dangerous substances, are linked to morality and strengthen the most important part of the latter socially. is. Freedom is at the core of science, but in the end it is human activity, so what is appropriate or right for humans and society? I think it's important to have that kind of feeling and polish it.
I started with some scientific introspection. Again, science is related to its environment, to the conditions of the external human society. And most importantly, I'm already reflecting on what I've been talking about and thinking with all of you. If you always use your head, you can introspect and capture your own various scientific activities. In the realm of philosophy there is one of the most important maxims of the humanities and social sciences: "Know thyself." This is now, in a broad sense, cultivating, polishing, and maintaining character with a sense of fairness. That would mean knowing what you are doing. It is difficult, but it suggests that it is very important. But individuals have their limits. Please value communication with your friends. Mutual respect and mutual learning. It also deepens your thinking. I believe that this is the subjective way of advancing science. Thank you very much.