Materials, materialism, and search for meaning-an essay
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Materials, Materialism, and Search for Meaning
An Essay
MORRIS COHEN
In a broad philosophical sense, we can regard materialism as a rational attempt by the human intellect to understand not only the physical phenomena of nature but also the existence of man and his social development. The essence of materialism requires it to operate completely within the framework of science, and therefore it remains silent on supernatural beliefs and theological thought. As an exercise of inquiry, I shall adopt the constraints of materialism in this Lecture and venture to show how it can lead to human values and meaning in life, consistent with the turbulent history of the universe since its inception 15 to 20 billion years ago and the chaotic ascent of man from animal-ness to human-ness 1 million years ago. It was only within the last 60 thousand years that the human brain advanced to the stage when it began to ask deep questions about life and death. In materialistic terms, all of these vastly different metamorphoses are manifestations of evolutionary processes unfolding at many levels in the scale of things: cosmological, biological, and social, and resulting in the precious heritage of accumulated experience and information which is now stored in the genetic material of the human race. Through the inexorable streams of continuing evolution, there are real prospects that the human brain will further expand in its power and urge to attain new insights concerning the universe and life, and even concerning values and aesthetics. With such an outlook, we can find high purpose in striving to contribute ultimately to social evolution as well as to the genetic pool, however imperceptibly, by living and teaching according to the ideals which we, individually, have come to regard as worthy and desirable. Thus, through the evolutionary forces at play in nature and society, materialism provides a way of thinking about life and the distant future that can offer both meaning and direction in human terms. In this profound sense, materialism becomes both humanistic and cultural.
MORRIS COHEN received the degree of Bachelorof Science (1933) and Doctor of Science (1936) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He became Instructor of Metallurgy at M.I.T. in 1936, Assistant Professor in 1937, Associate Professor in 1941, Professor of Physical Metallurgy in 1946, Ford Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in 1962, and Institute Professor in 1975. In 1977 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and in 1979 the honorary degree of Doctor of Science in Technologyfrom the Israel Institute of Technologyin Haifa. In 1980he was awarded Honorary Professorships at the Beijing University of Iron and Steel Technology and at the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the People's Republic of China. METALLURGICALTRANSACTIONSA
During World War II, Dr. Cohen was Associate Director of the Manhattan Project at M.I.T. and also served as an Official Investigator fo
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