On the dark side of the history and present of science, on intellectuals and those who call themselves such, who salute instead of thinking, on the mercantile ideology of education, and the production of trash to satisfy imposed administrative criteria.
“There is no more miserable intellectual position than that of those who defend the state from its supposed enemies. As soon as an ‘intellectual’ proclaims that the state is endangered by sinister ‘subversives,’ we can be certain that they have obliterated the difference between thinking and saluting.” – Viktor Ivančić
Do you think that some of our professors and intellectuals, who today spread lies through inflammatory portals and TV shows, would, in even more extreme circumstances, behave differently from those who once pledged allegiance in the “Oath of Loyalty of Professors of German Universities and Higher Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist State”?
It’s Sunday evening, January 25, 1942. In his home in Bonn, Germany, a Jewish man, together with his wife and her sister, spends the evening contemplating whether to allow himself to be deported to a camp tomorrow or to deny the Nazis that satisfaction. They choose the latter. He writes a letter to his friend stating that by the time his friend reads those lines, the three of them will have already “solved their problem in another way,” asking for forgiveness and wishing him and all other friends better times. That “other way” was by taking poison. The husband and wife passed away by morning, while the sister succumbed after several days in a coma.
The man in this story was not just anyone, although it is clear that all lives are equally valuable regardless of status. He was Felix Hausdorff, a great mathematician of the 20th century, one of the brightest minds of humanity. Hausdorff contributed to the development of several mathematical disciplines, laying the foundations of general topology, and a double-digit number of key mathematical terms bear his name. To the Nazis, however, none of this mattered: to them, Hausdorff was a member of an enemy people that had to be exterminated for Germany to flourish. In the eyes of German “patriots,” he was undeserving of life.
Six months after Hausdorff’s death, on July 26, 1942, another prominent Austrian-Jewish mathematician, Georg Alexander Pick, was killed in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
At that time, as mathematicians like Hausdorff and Pick were being persecuted and Jewish scientists were being expelled from universities, philosophers, mathematicians, physicists, and other scholars openly supported the Nazi regime. They stood by Hitler and remained indifferent to the fates of their colleagues.
Students of advanced mathematics might encounter something called the Pick interpolation problem. It is not relevant here to explain what it entails, but the solution to Pick’s problem involves something called the Blaschke function. Pick, as noted earlier, was killed in a Nazi camp. Meanwhile, Wilhelm Blaschke, a mathematician who supported Hitler and joined the Nazi party, worked on solving this problem. How chilling it sounds to say that Blaschke solved Pick’s problem.
Blaschke was not an exception. Philipp Lenard, a physicist who contributed significantly to the development of atomic theory and won the Nobel Prize in 1905, became a devoted Nazi until his death. Similarly, Johannes Stark, another Nobel laureate in physics, who made groundbreaking discoveries regarding the composition of stars, was an ardent supporter of Hitler. Stark endorsed the idea that German scientists must be racially pure and signed his letters with “Heil Hitler.”
Lenard and Stark were prominent figures in the so-called “German Physics,” a project aimed at excluding “inferior races” from German universities. They sought to portray valuable scientific achievements as products of Aryan genius while dismissing Jewish contributions, including Einstein’s theories, as “Jewish Physics.”
The “Oath of Loyalty of Professors” bore the names of about 900 philosophers, theologians, mathematicians, physicists, chemists, linguists, engineers, and historians. Among them was the renowned philosopher Martin Heidegger, who supported Hitler’s cause with all his heart, soul, and intellect, providing philosophical justification for his regime.
Would humanity have been better off if people like Lenard, Stark, Blaschke, and Heidegger had never been educated?
Key Theses from the Text
- Education without humanistic principles is harmful
Education devoid of moral and ethical principles does not benefit humanity and can contribute to societal harm.
- Intellectual complicity with authoritarian regimes
Throughout history, many intellectuals have supported or remained silent about regimes committing atrocities.
- Bureaucratization of science
Modern science is overly driven by administrative and profit-based metrics, leading to the production of meaningless or low-quality research.
- Degradation of education’s moral value
The purpose of education is increasingly reduced to serving industrial and market needs, abandoning its role in fostering critical thinking and humanity.
- History as a warning
Examples from the past show how education and intellect can be weaponized in service of harmful ideologies.
- Market-driven ideology in education
Education is increasingly treated as an industrial product, sidelining its humanistic and enlightenment values.
- Questioning scientific progress
While science and technology advance rapidly, their benefits often serve corporate or elite interests, leaving broader societal issues unaddressed.
- Intellectuals endorsing injustice
Educated individuals often act as apologists for injustice or fail to oppose it, making them complicit in perpetuating harmful systems.
- Dangers of unchecked trends
Current trends in education and science risk escalating societal inequality, extremism, and conflict.
- Call for humanistic education
The author advocates a return to education rooted in moral and ethical values, prioritizing humanity over profit or power.