About scientific and technological progress. The problem of the negative consequences of scientific progress according to the text by I. Ehrenburg (Unified State Examination in Russian)

Scientific progress is what helps us develop, learn more, provides many opportunities for humanity and largely improves the quality of their lives. But not all people use the fruits of scientific progress to benefit society.

The main problem with the source text is the problem negative consequences scientific progress. Can scientific progress harm humanity? And does it always benefit him?

With his text, I.G. Erenburg wants to make it clear to readers that, firstly, scientific and technological progress can lead not only to positive consequences, but also to negative ones: “A machine can be good and evil,” and, secondly, it all depends on how the person himself uses this “machine”, because it is he who controls it and decides what moral values he should be guided when using it: “The Nazis tried to replace the heart of a fighter with a motor, soldier’s endurance & armor. However, the Patriotic War proved the triumph of the human spirit.”

Many great writers have revealed this problem in his works.

For example, in M. Bulgakov’s story “The Heart of a Dog,” Professor Preobrazhensky performed an experiment that turned out to be a real breakthrough in science: he transplanted the pituitary gland and endocrine glands of Klim Chugunkin, who died from a knife attack, and was convicted three times for theft, to the dog Sharik. The success was that this dog did not die, but gradually became a man named Poligraph Poligrafovich Sharikov. But which one? Selfish, ill-mannered, ungrateful, capable of theft and causing a lot of inconvenience to the people around him: he pestered his neighbor’s cook, embezzled several ducats from the professor, deceived an innocent girl, demanded respect for him and denounced his creator to the authorities.

Professor Preobrazhensky, realizing that his creation brings worries to many people, returns it to the opposite state.

And in V. Rasputin’s story “Farewell to Matera,” technological progress destroyed the lives of many people: the construction of a hydroelectric power station required the construction of a dam that would flood the island of Matera. All the inhabitants of this small village were warned and forced to leave, but for some of the heroes of the story this place was their real homeland. They lived on it all their lives, their relatives and friends are buried there, and it was on Matera that they felt a reunification with nature, which is impossible when living in the city. Grandma Daria and her close friends were faithful to their island and were very upset by the upcoming event - the flooding of their painfully native village.

Scientific progress does not always benefit humanity, and he needs to think about this problem and try to solve it, at least starting with one person - himself. After all, what good can this progress be if people use it for the purpose of destruction, causing wars and committing murders?

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Updated: 2017-11-10

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What consequences can the scientific and technological revolution lead to? This is precisely the question that arises when reading the text of D. A. Granin.

Revealing the problem of the influence of the scientific and technological revolution on spiritual world person, the author relies on his own reasoning and gives many examples from life. The danger of the scientific and technological revolution, according to the writer, is that a person can become complacent and limited, reducing all the diversity of the world only to a subject for scientific research.

Despite the fact that every year everything comes to museums more people, art becomes only a sphere of consumption: sightseers hastily walk around the halls, not having time to understand, feel and experience art. Books are read only to obtain information. A utilitarian, primitive approach to art as an object of consumption leads to a loss of aesthetic taste. And for Darwin, for example, this is tantamount to a loss of happiness; it has a detrimental effect on moral qualities, weakening the emotional side of human nature.

The development of science and the improvement of technology can lead to the spiritual degradation of a person and slow down his development.

To confirm this idea, let's turn to the dystopian genre. Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 predicted many of the technological advances of the future. Before us is a consumer society, completely unspiritual, living only by material interests. Books that make you think are prohibited here. But the walls of the houses inside are equipped with huge television screens with endless series, where the characters become almost family members, and interactive communication is possible. Main character- fireman Guy Montag, who, as part of his duty, burns books if they are found in houses.

Let's remember another dystopia. This is E.I. Zamyatin’s novel “We,” which also depicts the future. The United State is separated from nature by a transparent wall, people in identical uniforms are numbers, subject to a single routine. Love here is just a “nice - useful function” for pink coupons. This society is soulless. And when the main character, the builder of Integral D-503, “forms a soul” because of his love for I – 330, he is subjected to surgery to cut out his fantasy. Literature as the highest form of art does not exist here; it is replaced by useful works written at the request of the state.

We have come to the conclusion that scientific and technological progress really does pose the danger of creating a soulless society.

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Updated: 2018-01-29

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Useful material on the topic

Confrontation of the power of human courage, courage, self-sacrifice destructive force soulless iron and steel especially stands out in the text written by the Russian prose writer and poet of the twentieth century, I. G. Ehrenburg.

The author’s position is that machines and technology created by humanity for creation, but aimed at destruction and destruction, will never be able to prevail over the will of a person who does not want to give his happiness, future and the future of his descendants to an instrument for destruction. The strength hidden in a brave heart is much stronger than the terrifying power of tanks and airplanes.

I completely agree with the position of I.G. Ehrenburg. A machine, of course, can become a good tool for a person if he decides to create a worthy future in which morality is not an empty word, and life is priceless. But a machine will never become a reliable support for him if it is created for the purpose of destroying everything objectionable and for the forced subjugation and control of all humanity.

In R. Bradbury's novel “Fahrenheit 451,” a machine that destroys one of the main values for a person, a book, began to tower over a person, turning him into a silent empty shell, deprived, along with the ability to know, of something more than something material and tangible, to the ability to fight and strive for one’s spiritual self-development.

The strength of the human spirit far exceeds the cold calculation of machines. Courage and self-sacrifice are not familiar to a lifeless piece of iron. This is a significant advantage of man over machine.

Ivan Samsonovich Gavrilov, participant of the Great Patriotic War, showed by personal example how strong human reluctance is to submit to the enemy, who has in his hands the most advanced technology at that time military equipment to protect everything that is so dear to every person.

Together with his squad, he was one of the first to cross to the right bank of the Dnieper, so that later, diverting the attention of the enemies to himself, he could help the remaining units cross the Dnieper.

Thus, I. G. Ehrenburg turned out to be right, and even the most durable armor is not capable of becoming stronger than man, she will never defeat the power of human will, courage, and most importantly, a person’s love for life, honest and worthy.

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Updated: 2017-04-02

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Two random arguments on the topic "Scientific Progress and Morality" to the Unified State Exam:

1) Morality and scientific and technological progress are difficult to compatible concepts. Proof of this is Zamyatin’s novel “We”. The heroes of the work live in a special systemic system, where the population has achieved incredible scientific and technological progress, but has completely lost all moral principles and human feelings. People, living according to a special mechanism, have become like cogs in a large social machine. The whole life of the heroes is subject to certain laws and rules. There is a general schedule of life, obligatory for everyone, even intimate, a person loses his name and becomes a “number”. The whole world is subject only to logic and mathematics. This leads the novel's heroes to moral degradation and loss of the meaning of life. Thus, naked technical progress, which does not take into account the desires and needs of a person, turns society into a kind of soulless and homogeneous mass, while a person needs warmth, love and understanding.

2) Humanity has achieved enormous success in its development: a computer, a telephone, a robot, a conquered atom... But a strange thing: the stronger a person becomes, the more anxious the expectation of the future. What will happen to us? Where are we going? Let's imagine an inexperienced driver driving his brand new car at breakneck speed. How pleasant it is to feel the speed, how pleasant it is to realize that a powerful motor is subject to your every movement! But suddenly the driver realizes with horror that he cannot stop his car. Humanity is like this young driver who rushes into an unknown distance, not knowing what lurks there, around the bend.

Usage example

For example, at the Unified State Exam you received a text by D. Granin on the topic of honor. By using our service " Ready Arguments for an essay on the Unified State Exam", you receive the following two arguments *:

1) As you know, A.S. Pushkin died in a duel, fighting for the honor of his wife. M. Lermontov in his poem called the poet “a slave of honor.” The quarrel, the cause of which was the insulted honor of A. Pushkin, led to the death of the greatest writer. However, Alexander Sergeevich retained his honor and good name in the memory of people.

2) A hero with high moral qualities is Petrusha Grinev - a character in the story by A. S. Pushkin " Captain's daughter"Peter did not tarnish his honor even in those cases when he could have paid for it with his head. He was a highly moral person worthy of respect and pride. He could not leave Shvabrin’s slander against Masha unpunished, so he challenged him to a duel.
Shvabrin is the complete opposite of Grinev: he is a person for whom the concept of honor and nobility does not exist at all. He walked over the heads of others, stepping over himself to please his momentary desires. Popular rumor says: “Take care of your dress again, and take care of your honor from a young age.” Once you have tarnished your honor, you are unlikely to ever be able to restore your good name.

As a result, you have already written most of the essay: 150 words (arguments) out of 200 (the full answer required for the Unified State Exam).

* The selection of arguments for a given topic is done automatically, with each new time you receive a new pair of arguments.

In the process of creating an essay, review, essay, or oral statement, you need to substantiate the main idea (thesis) with arguments, quotes and examples relevant to the topic, which causes difficulties for schoolchildren.

Here are examples theses, quotes and arguments on the following issues:

1. Education and culture.
2. Education of a person.
3. The role of science in modern life.
4. Man and scientific progress.
5. Spiritual consequences of scientific discoveries.
6. The struggle between new and old as a source of development.

Possible theses:

1. Knowledge of the world cannot be stopped by anything.
2. Scientific progress should not outstrip human moral capabilities.
3. The purpose of science is to make people happy.

Quotes:

1. We can as much as we know (Heraclitus, ancient Greek philosopher).
2. Not every change is development (ancient philosophers).
3. We were civilized enough to build a machine, but too primitive to use it (K. Kraus, German scientist).
4. We left the caves, but the cave has not yet left us (Antony of Regul).

Arguments:

1. Scientific progress and moral qualities person.

1) The uncontrolled development of science and technology worries people more and more. Let's imagine a baby dressed in his father's costume. He's wearing a huge jacket, long trousers, a hat that slides down over his eyes... Doesn't this picture remind you of modern man? Without having time to grow morally, mature, and mature, he became the owner of powerful technology that is capable of destroying all life on Earth.

3) B ancient mythology There is a legend about Pandora's box. A woman discovered a strange box in her husband's house. She knew that this item was fraught with terrible danger, but her curiosity was so strong that she could not stand it and opened the lid. All sorts of troubles flew out of the box and scattered around the world. This myth sounds a warning to all of humanity: rash actions on the path of knowledge can lead to a disastrous ending.

4) In M. Bulgakov’s story, Doctor Preobrazhensky turns a dog into a man. Scientists are driven by a thirst for knowledge, a desire to change nature. But sometimes progress turns into dire consequences: a two-legged creature with “ with a dog's heart“- this is not yet a person, because there is no soul in him, no love, honor, nobility.

5) “We boarded the plane, but we don’t know where it will land!” - wrote the famous Russian writer Yu. Bondarev. These words sound a warning addressed to all humanity. Indeed, sometimes we are very careless, we do something, i.e. “we board a plane” without thinking about what the consequences of our hasty decisions and thoughtless actions will be. And these consequences can be fatal.

6) Information constantly flashes in the press that an elixir of immortality will soon appear. Death will be completely defeated. But for many people this news did not cause a surge of joy; on the contrary, anxiety intensified. How will this immortality turn out for a person?

7) There are still ongoing debates about how morally legitimate experiments related to human cloning are. Who will be born as a result of this cloning? What kind of creature will this be? Human? Cyborg? Means of production?

8) It is naive to believe that some kind of bans or strikes can stop scientific and technological progress. For example, in England, during a period of rapid development of technology, a movement of Luddites began, who in despair broke cars. People could be understood: many of them lost their jobs after machines began to be used in factories. But the use of technological advances ensured an increase in productivity, so the performance of the followers of the apprentice Ludd was doomed. Another thing is that with their protest they forced society to think about the fate specific people, about the price you have to pay for moving forward.

9) One science fiction story tells how the hero, finding himself in the house of a famous scientist, saw a vessel in which the scientist’s double—his genetic copy—was preserved in alcohol. The guest was amazed at the immorality of this act: “How could you create a creature similar to yourself and then kill it?” And I heard in response: “Why do you think that I created it? It was he who created me!”

10) Nicolaus Copernicus, after much research, came to the conclusion that the center of our Universe is not the Earth, but the Sun. But the scientist for a long time did not dare to publish data about his discovery, because he understood that such news would change people’s ideas about the world order, and this could lead to unpredictable consequences.

11) Today we have not yet learned to treat many deadly diseases, hunger has not yet been defeated, and the most pressing problems have not been solved. However, technically, man is already capable of destroying all life on the planet. At one time, the Earth was inhabited by dinosaurs - huge monsters, real killing machines. Over the course of evolution, these giant reptiles disappeared. Will humanity repeat the fate of dinosaurs?

12) There have been cases in history when some secrets that could cause harm to humanity were destroyed deliberately. In particular, in 1903, the Russian professor Filippov, who invented a method of long-distance radio transmission shock waves from the explosion, found dead in his laboratory. After this, by order of Nicholas II, all documents were confiscated and burned, and the laboratory was destroyed. It is unknown whether the king was guided by the interests of his own security or the future of humanity, but similar means transmission of the force of an atomic or hydrogen explosion would be truly disastrous for the world's population.

13) Recently newspapers reported that a church under construction in Batumi was demolished. A week later, the district administration building collapsed. Seven people died under the rubble. Many residents perceived these events not as a mere coincidence, but as a dire warning that society had chosen the wrong path.

14) In one of the Ural cities they decided to blow up an abandoned church so that it would be easier to extract marble at this place. When the explosion occurred, it turned out that the marble slab was cracked in many places and became unusable. This example clearly shows that the thirst for short-term gain leads a person to meaningless destruction.

2. Laws of social development.

A) Man and power.

1) History knows many unsuccessful attempts to forcefully make a person happy. If freedom is taken away from people, then heaven turns into a prison. The favorite of Tsar Alexander I, General Arakcheev, when creating military settlements at the beginning of the 19th century, pursued good goals. Peasants were forbidden to drink vodka, they were supposed to go to church at the prescribed hours, children were supposed to be sent to schools, and they were forbidden to be punished. It would seem that everything is correct! But people were forced to be good, they were forced to love, work, study... And the man deprived of freedom, turned into a slave, rebelled: a wave of general protest arose, and Arakcheev’s reforms were curtailed.

2) Alone African tribe, who lived in the equatorial zone, decided to help. Young Africans were taught to grow rice; they were given tractors and seeders. A year has passed - we came to see how the tribe, gifted with new knowledge, lives. Imagine the disappointment when they saw that the tribe was still living: they sold the tractors to farmers, and with the proceeds they organized a national holiday. This example is eloquent evidence that a person must mature to understand his needs; no one can be made rich, smart and happy by force.

3) In one kingdom there was a severe drought, people began to die of hunger and thirst. The king turned to the soothsayer, who came to them from distant countries. He predicted that the drought would end as soon as a stranger was sacrificed. Then the king ordered to kill the soothsayer and throw him into the well. The drought ended, but since then a constant hunt for foreign wanderers began.

4) Historian Evgeniy Tarle in one of his books talks about Nicholas I’s visit to Moscow University. When the rector introduced him to the best students, Nicholas I said: “I don’t need smart people, but I need novices.” The attitude towards wise men and novices in various fields of knowledge and art eloquently testifies to the character of society.

5) In 1848, the tradesman Nikifor Nikitin was exiled to the distant settlement of Baikonur “for seditious speeches about flying to the moon.” Of course, no one could have known that a century later a cosmodrome would be built on this very spot in the Kazakh steppe and spaceships will fly to where the prophetic eyes of an enthusiastic dreamer looked.

B) Man and knowledge.

1) Ancient historians say that one day a stranger came to the Roman emperor and brought him a gift of metal as shiny as silver, but extremely soft. The master said that he extracts this metal from clayey soil. The emperor, fearing that the new metal would devalue his treasures, ordered the inventor's head to be cut off.

2) Archimedes, knowing that people were suffering from drought and famine, proposed new ways to irrigate land. Thanks to his discovery, crop yields increased sharply and people stopped starving.

3) The outstanding scientist Fleming discovered penicillin. This drug has saved the lives of millions of people who previously died from blood poisoning.

4) One English engineer in the mid-19th century came up with an improved cartridge. But officials from the military department arrogantly told him: “We are already strong, only the weak need to improve weapons.”

5) The famous scientist Jenner, who defeated smallpox with the help of vaccinations, was prompted by the words of an ordinary peasant woman to come up with a brilliant idea. The doctor told her that she had smallpox. To this the woman calmly replied: “It can’t be, because I already had cowpox.” The doctor did not consider these words to be the result of dark ignorance, but began to make observations that led to a brilliant discovery.

6) Early Middle Ages commonly called the “Dark Ages.” The raids of barbarians and the destruction of ancient civilization led to a deep decline in culture. It was difficult to find a literate person not only among common people, but also among people of the upper class. For example, the founder of the Frankish state, Charlemagne, did not know how to write. However, the thirst for knowledge is inherently human. The same Charlemagne, during his campaigns, always carried with him wax tablets for writing, on which, under the guidance of teachers, he carefully wrote letters.

7) For thousands of years, ripe apples fell from trees, but no one attached any significance to this common phenomenon. The great Newton had to be born in order to look at a familiar fact with new, more insightful eyes and discover the universal law of motion.

8) It is impossible to calculate how many disasters their ignorance has brought to people. In the Middle Ages, every misfortune: the illness of a child, the death of livestock, rain, drought, crop failure, the loss of something - was explained by the machinations evil spirits. A brutal witch hunt began and fires started burning. Instead of treating diseases, improving agriculture, helping each other, people enormous forces wasted on a meaningless struggle with the mythical “servants of Satan,” not realizing that with their blind fanaticism, their dark ignorance they serve the Devil.

9) It is difficult to overestimate the role of a mentor in the development of a person. An interesting legend is about the meeting of Socrates with Xenophon, the future historian. Once, having talked with an unfamiliar young man, Socrates asked him where to go for flour and butter. Young Xenophon answered smartly: “To the market.” Socrates asked: “What about wisdom and virtue?” The young man was surprised. “Follow me, I’ll show you!” - Socrates promised. And the long-term path to the truth connected strong friendship famous teacher and his student.

10) The desire to learn new things lives in each of us, and sometimes this feeling takes over a person so much that it forces him to change life path. Today, few people know that Joule, who discovered the law of conservation of energy, was a cook. The brilliant Faraday began his career as a peddler in a shop. And Coulon worked as an engineer on fortifications and devoted only his free time to physics. For these people, the search for something new has become the meaning of life.

11) New ideas make their way through a difficult struggle with old views and established opinions. Thus, one of the professors, giving lectures on physics to students, called Einstein’s theory of relativity “an annoying scientific misunderstanding.”

12) At one time, Joule used a voltaic battery to start an electric motor he had assembled from it. But the battery charge soon ran out, and a new one was very expensive. Joule decided that the horse would never be replaced by the electric motor, since it was much cheaper to feed a horse than to change the zinc in a battery. Today, when electricity is used everywhere, the opinion of an outstanding scientist seems naive to us. This example shows that it is very difficult to predict the future, it is difficult to survey the opportunities that will open up for a person.

13) In the mid-17th century, from Paris to the island of Martinique, Captain de Clieu carried a coffee stalk in a pot with soil. The voyage was very difficult: the ship survived a fierce battle with pirates, a terrible storm almost broke it against the rocks. The ship's masts were broken and the rigging was smashed. Fresh water supplies gradually began to dry up. It was given out in strictly measured portions. The captain, barely able to stand on his feet from thirst, gave the last drops of precious moisture to the green sprout... Several years passed, and coffee trees covered the island of Martinique. This story allegorically reflects the difficult path of any scientific truth. A person carefully cherishes in his soul the sprout of an as yet unknown discovery, waters it with the moisture of hope and inspiration, shelters it from everyday storms and storms of despair... And here it is - the saving shore of final insight. A ripened tree of truth will give seeds and entire plantations of theories, monographs, scientific laboratories, technical innovations will cover the continents of knowledge.