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{{Short description|Scientific temper is a way of Free Thinking}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

The term '''scientific temper''' is broadly defined as "a modest [[Open-mindedness|open-minded]] temper—a temper ever ready to welcome new light, new [[knowledge]], new [[Experiment|experiments]], even when their results are unfavourable to preconceived [[Opinion|opinions]] and long-cherished [[Theory|theories]]."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Diggle|first=John|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Expositor/rtSzmamY6fQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=scientific+temper&pg=PA451&printsec=frontcover|title=The Faith of Science|date=1898|publisher=The Expositor|editor-last=Nicoll|editor-first=W. Robertson|series=The Expositor (Fifth Series)|volume=VII|location=London|pages=451–452|language=en}}</ref> It is a way of life (defined in this context as an individual and social process of thinking and acting) which uses the [[scientific method]] and which may, consequently, include questioning, [[observation|observing]] [[physical body|physical]] [[reality]], [[experiment|testing]], [[hypothesis|hypothesizing]], analyzing, and communicating (not necessarily in that order). [[Conversation|Discussion]], [[argument]] and [[analysis]] are vital parts of scientific temper. It aims to inculcate the values of scientific thinking, appreciate scientific development,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chacko|first=Priya|date=2011|title=The search for a scientific temper: nuclear technology and the ambivalence of India's postcolonial modernity|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S026021051000046X/type/journal_article|journal=Review of International Studies|language=en|volume=37|issue=1|pages=185–208|doi=10.1017/S026021051000046X|s2cid=143681466}}</ref> and drive away superstition, religious bigotry, and all forms of pseudo-science.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Raza|first1=Gauhar|last2=Singh|first2=Surjit|date=2018|title=Politics, Religion, Science and Scientific Temper|journal=Cultures of Science|language=en|volume=1|issue=1|pages=39–51|doi=10.1177/209660831800100105|doi-access=free}}</ref>

== Development ==
Scientific temper as a notion existed for a long time, and the origin of the term is unknown. The exact terminology became frequently used in the mid-19th century.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ob9LAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22scientific+temper%22&pg=PA425|title=Saturday Review: Politics, Literature, Science and Art|date=1859|publisher=Saturday Review|pages=425|language=en|chapter=Mind and Body}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Paget|first=James|date=1869|title=Clinical Lecture ON THE TREATMENT OF CARBUNCLE.|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673602653978|journal=The Lancet|language=en|volume=93|issue=2368|pages=73–75|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(02)65397-8}}</ref> A Jesuit scholar Thomas Aloysius Hughes gave a short definition in 1893, saying, "A scientific temper... means a scrupulous and rigid exactness... [which] is the outcome of exact science."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hughes|first=Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I9E1AQAAMAAJ|title=The American Catholic Quarterly Review|date=1893|publisher=Hardy and Mahony|volume=18|location=Philadelphia|pages=627|language=en|chapter=Anthropology: A historical Sketch}}</ref>

In his [[Conway Memorial Lecture]] in 1922, [[Bertrand Russell]] used the example of [[Albert Einstein]] to explain the meaning of scientific temper:<ref>{{Cite web|last=Russell|first=Bertrand|title=Free Thought and Official Propaganda|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44932/44932-h/44932-h.htm|access-date=2021-06-05|website=www.gutenberg.org|language=en}}</ref><blockquote>We have had in recent years a brilliant example of the scientific temper of mind in the [[theory of relativity]] and its reception by the world. Einstein, a German-Swiss-Jew pacifist, was appointed to a research professorship by the German Government in the early days of the War; his [[General relativity|predictions]] were verified by an [[Eddington experiment|English expedition]] which observed the [[Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919|eclipse of 1919]], very soon after the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|Armistice]]. His theory upsets the whole theoretical framework of traditional physics; it is almost as damaging to [[Classical mechanics|orthodox dynamics]] as [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] was to ''[[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]''. Yet physicists everywhere have shown complete readiness to accept his theory as soon as it appeared that the evidence was in its favour. But none of them, least of all Einstein himself, would claim that he has said the last word. He has not built a monument of infallible dogma to stand for all time. There are difficulties he cannot solve; his doctrines will have to be modified in their turn as they have modified [[Newton's law of universal gravitation|Newton’s]]. This critical undogmatic receptiveness is the true attitude of science.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Russell|first=Bertrand|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44932/44932-h/44932-h.htm|title=Free Thought and Official Propaganda|publisher=Watts & Co.|year=1922|location=London|pages=19–20}}</ref></blockquote>Beginning in 1946, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], the first [[Prime Minister of India|Prime Minister]] of independent [[India]], popularized the use of the phrase "scientific temper" to further propagate the notion.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mahanti|first1=Subodh|title=A Perspective on Scientific Temper in India|journal=Journal of Scientific Temper|date=2013|volume=1|issue=1|pages=46–62|url=http://op.niscair.res.in/index.php/JST/article/view/1099}}</ref> He gave a descriptive explanation in ''[[The Discovery of India]]'':<blockquote>The scientific temper points out the way along which man should travel. It is the temper of a free man. We live in a scientific age, so we are told, but there is little evidence of this temper in the people anywhere or even their leaders.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nehru|first=Jawaharlal|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.537001|title=The Discovery of India|date=1946|publisher=The Signet Press|location=Calcutta (India)|pages=453}}</ref>

[What is needed] is the scientific approach, the adventurous and yet critical temper of science, the search for [[truth]] and new [[knowledge]], the refusal to accept anything without testing and trial, the capacity to change previous conclusions in the face of new evidence, the reliance on observed fact and not on pre-conceived [[theory]], the hard discipline of the mind—all this is necessary, not merely for the application of science but for life itself and the solution of its many problems.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nehru|first=Jawaharlal|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.537001|title=Ibid|date=1946|pages=452}}</ref></blockquote>Nehru wrote that the scientific temper goes beyond the domains to which science is conventionally understood to be limited to, and deals also with the consideration of ultimate purposes, [[aesthetics|beauty]], goodness and truth. He contended that the scientific temper is the opposite of the method of religion, which relies on emotion and intuition and is (mis)applied "to everything in life, even to those things which are capable of intellectual inquiry and observation." While religion tends to close the mind and produce "[[Social tolerance|intolerance]], [[credulity]] and [[superstition]], emotionalism and irrationalism", and "a temper of a dependent, unfree person", a scientific temper "is the temper of a [[freedom|free]] man." He also indicated that the scientific temper goes beyond [[objectivity (philosophy)|objectivity]] and fosters creativity and progress. He envisioned that the spread of scientific temper would be accompanied by a shrinking of the domain of [[religion]], and "the exciting adventure of fresh and never ceasing discoveries, of new panoramas opening out and new ways of living, adding to [life's] fullness and ever making it richer and more complete."<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last1=Nehru|first1=Jawaharlal|title=The Discovery of India|publisher=Oxford: University Press|year=1989|edition=Centenary|page=513}}</ref> He also stated, "It is science alone that can solve the problems of [[malnutrition|hunger]] and [[poverty in India|poverty]], of insanitation and [[literacy in India|illiteracy]], of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kar|first1=Devi|date=21 August 2012|title=The Need to Foster a Scientific Temper|work=The Telegraph|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120821/jsp/opinion/story_15874879.jsp#.VJeYScFcBg|access-date=22 December 2014}}</ref>

== Recognition in India ==

=== Fundamental duty of Indian citizen ===
India is the first and only country to explicitly adopt scientific temper in its [[Constitution of India|constitution]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Srinivasan|first=Venkataraghavan|date=2020-05-27|title=Scientific temper: A Nehruvian thought that is much relevant today|url=https://thefederal.com/science/scientific-temper-a-nehruvian-thought-but-very-much-relevant-today/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-06|website=The Federal|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Bharti|first=Sunanda|date=2020-04-11|title=Spirit of Inquiry and Reform in the Era of Fake News|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/will-why-i-love-law/spirit-of-inquiry-and-reform-in-the-era-of-fake-news-11803/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-06|website=Times of India|language=en}}</ref> In the [[Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India|forty-second amendment in 1976]], Article 51 A(h) was added under the [[Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties of India|Fundamental Duties]] that states:<blockquote>[It shall be the duty of every citizen of India] To develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.<ref>* {{Cite book|last=Basu|first=Durga Das|title=Introduction to the Constitution of India|publisher=[[Prentice Hall|Prentice Hall of India]]|year=1993|isbn=81-203-0839-5|edition=15th|place=New Delhi|page=131}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 {{!}} National Portal of India|url=https://www.india.gov.in/my-government/constitution-india/amendments/constitution-india-forty-second-amendment-act-1976|access-date=2021-06-06|website=www.india.gov.in}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Government actions ===
The first major programme under the [[Government of India]] to popularise scientific temper among the people was the ''Vigyan Mandir'' (temple of knowledge/science) experiment in 1953. It was created by [[Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar|S. S. Bhatnagar]], at the time Head of the [[Council of Scientific and Industrial Research]] (CSIR), in Delhi and launched by Nehru on 15 August. Its purpose was to “disseminate scientific information of interest to the rural population” and the centres were furnished with scientific tools, films, and books.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last1=Rautela|first1=G. S.|last2=Chowdhury|first2=Kanchan|date=2016-09-01|title=Science, Science Literacy and Communication|url=http://insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol51_2016_3_Art05.pdf|journal=Indian Journal of History of Science|volume=51|issue=3|pages=494–510|doi=10.16943/ijhs/2016/v51i3/48850|doi-access=free}}</ref>

CSIR started publishing a popular science periodical ''Vigyan Pragati'' (''Progress in Science'') in Hindi in 1952. It introduced an English monthly journal ''[[Science Reporter]]'' in 1964,<ref name=":02" /> and then a Urdu quarterly journal ''Science Ki Dunia''.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bagla|first1=Pallava|title=Bridging the Communication Gap in Science and Technology: Lessons from India|last2=Binoy|first2=V. V.|publisher=Springer|year=2017|isbn=978-981-10-1025-5|location=Singapore|pages=150–151|oclc=973396802}}</ref> In 1982, the [[National Council for Science and Technology Communication]] (NCSTC) was established under the [[Department of Science and Technology (India)|Department of Science and Technology]]. NCSTC "is mandated to communicate Science and Technology to masses, stimulate scientific and technological temper and coordinate and orchestrate such efforts throughout the country."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=National Council for Science & Technology Communication NCSTC|url=https://dst.gov.in/scientific-programmes/st-and-socio-economic-development/national-council-science-technology-communication-ncstc|access-date=25 March 2020|website=dst.gov.in}}</ref>

NCSTC organises annual programmes such as [[National Science Day]] and [[National Mathematics Day]], the National Children’s Science Congress, National Teacher’s Science Congress, and [[Science Express]].<ref name=":1" /> It specifically dedicated the [[National Science Day]] on 28 February 2014 to the theme "Fostering Scientific Temper" to spread Nehru's vision.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Keshavamurthy|first1=H.R.|date=27 February 2014|title=Fostering Scientific Temper is Fundamental to Innovation and Progress|url=http://pib.nic.in/newsite/efeatures.aspx?relid=104309|access-date=22 December 2014|publisher=Press Information Bureau, India}}</ref>

The [[National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources]] launched the scholarly serial ''Journal of Scientific Temper'' in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|title=''Journal of Scientific Temper''|url=http://op.niscair.res.in/index.php/JST/index|access-date=22 December 2014|publisher=NISCAIR, India}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Scientific method]]
[[Category:Philosophy of science]]
[[Category:Jawaharlal Nehru]]
[[Category:Bertrand Russell]]

Scientific temper - Revision history

Sbahin: typo fix