Orwell’s Quote

George Orwell wrote an essay called “What is Science” in which he explains his different definitions of science. This political novelist and journalist wrote in this essay this quote,  “…scientific education for the masses will do little good, and probably a lot of harm, if it simply boils down to more physics, more chemistry, more biology, etc., to the detriment of literature and history” (5)

My interpretation of this quote is Orwell is saying there is more education that is important than just sciences. If people knew just sciences it would cause harm. I agree with him in this quote because I believe knowing just one subject very well may be good but not enough. I think to be considered educated involves  being well rounded not just knowing one subject like the hard sciences. One definition he gave of science was a body of knowledge or mode of thinking which isn’t limited to scientific thinking, that could mean any other subject of education. He states sciences such as physics and chemistry aren’t enough and how detrimental he thought it would be if we only learned that. He stresses the important of literature and history which is true, all subjects have had their contribution to our society over the years. While some people think one subject is more important than others it think  its still important to know of all of the subjects collectively. Like our school system, we don’t just learn science all four years, we are required english, history, science, math as well as other classes we must complete before graduating. I feel without education outside of just one subject can really be the best they can be. If a psychologist only learned science how would they learn to communicate with their patients? That would hurt the field of psychology not being able to be well rounded because they haven’t be taught anything else but the hard sciences as Orwell pointed out.