Introduction: Ellul returns
Many nineteenth century thinkers, convinced of the Enlightenment premise that both nature and society were intelligible, and carried away by the growing prestige of the sciences, saw progress as a natural human development and believed that rational criteria guided societal choices. Biological evolution also appeared to provide a model for change applicable to history. An associated triumphalism in modernity dominated European popular culture until the outbreak of World War I and the post-war rise of dictatorial regimes. Yet even then a positive view of science remained largely intact. Even after World War II, the Shoah, saturation bombings of civilians, and the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the industrialization of science proceeded at an ever faster pace, assisted by an increasing involvement of state power. The United States science adviser Vannevar Bush (1945) went so far as to present post-World War II science as an “endless frontier” and font of social benefits in healthcare, economic development, and military defense.
Bush, Vannevar
Vannevar Bush (Fig. 1), the son of a clergyman, was born in Massachusetts on 11 March 1890. He attended Tufts University in the years before the First World War and earned both B.S. and M.S. degrees. He then continued on for a doctorate, which was conferred upon him in 1916 simultaneously by both Harvard and MIT. While a graduate student, he worked for General Electric and the US Navy, and taught mathematics at Tufts. In 1919 he joined the teaching staff of MIT, obtaining a full professorship in 1923 and becoming Vice President and Dean of the Engineering School in 1932. He remained with MIT until 1938, when he was elected President of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, a position he held until retiring from active public life in 1955.
2000 Review conference of the parties to the treaty on the non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, final document
4. The Conference notes that the non-nuclearweapon States Parties to the Treaty reaffirmed their commitment not to receive the transfer from any transferor whatsoever of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or of control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly, not to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, and not to seek or receive any assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. 2000 REVIEW CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS FINAL DOCUMENT