We all can attest to the power of education to change lives for the better, but we should not be too hasty in thinking that our problem today is a lack of education. If a lack of education were our problem educated people would not start wars; educated people would not embezzle funds, educated people would not pollute the environment. There would be no such thing as an educated crook. Our problem may be that we do not yet know the purpose of education nor the purpose of the scientific activity that often is its foundation. We need to understand why we practice education and science. Without that information we will never know whether we have used them effectively.

The only reason we learn about the world is so we can learn about ourselves, and the only reason we learn about ourselves is so we can remedy whatever we discover is wrong with ourselves. Those who are best equipped to lead us in the effort to remedy what is wrong with us are those who lead us in learning about the world around us. Why, then, is the scientific community missing in action as we battle our most pressing social problems?