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  Taking a stand: Exploring the role of the scientist prior to the first PugwashConference on Science and World Affairs, 1957  Article © Sylvia Marie Nickerson, s.nickerson@utoronto.caInstitute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto Publication forthcoming in 2013 in Scientia Canadensis: Journal of the History of Canadian Science, Technology, and Medicine  - CLICK TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

(2013) Taking a stand: Exploring the role of the scientist prior to the first Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, 1957

  •   Taking a stand: Exploring the role of the scientist prior to the first PugwashConference on Science and World Affairs, 1957  Article © Sylvia Marie Nickerson, s.nickerson@utoronto.caInstitute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto Publication forthcoming in 2013 in Scientia Canadensis: Journal of the History of Canadian Science, Technology, and Medicine   Contents:1.0   Introduction1.1
    Background to Pugwash: Man’s Peril and the Russell-Einstein Manifesto
    1.2
    The first Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs
    1.3
    Rationale for political engagement
    1.4
    Rationale for political disengagement
    1.5
    Scientists as political actors
    1.6
    Conclusion

    Abstract:
    In 1957, a small group of world-renown scientists gathered in Pugwash, Nova Scotia to discuss
    the growing threat of nuclear arms. Funded by industrialist Cyrus Eaton and
    spearheaded by philosopher
    Bertrand Russell and physicist Joseph Rotblat, this 1957
    meeting founded an organization of scientists
    that believed they had a duty to speak out
    against escalating nuclear testing and what they saw
    as the irresponsible use of 
    science.However, not every scientist felt that it was appropriate to take
    a public and
     political stand.
    This paper gives a brief history of the Pugwash movement and how its
    first meeting came to be held
    in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. The perspectives of involved
    scientists are examined, contrasting the
    attitudes of participants in the conference with the attitudes
    of scientists who declined a public role.
    This paper explores how scientists
     perceived their own responsibility to act,
    examining the willingness to use their cultural
    identity as scientists to lobby for a particular political position Uploaded by
    Sylvia Nickerson