Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

through several overlapping networks of specialists, the whole of science will be covered bychains and networks of overlapping neighborhoods. Each link in these chains and networkswill establish agreement between valuations made by scientists overlooking the sameoverlapping fields, and so, from one overlapping neighborhood to the other, agreement willbe established on the valuation of scientific merit throughout all the domains of science. Thisnetwork is the seat of scientific opinion. Scientific opinion is an opinion not held by anysingle human mind, but one which, split into thousands of fragments, is held by a multitudeof individuals, each of whom endorses the others’ opinion at second hand, by relying on theconsensual chains which link him to all the others through a sequence of overlappingneighborhoods 46 .Interestingly, Polanyi extends the practices of the ‘Republic of Science’ to apply alsoto society if one strives for an open and free society, thus transferring the principlesgoverning science, and the growth of knowledge to the wider social realm and into thedynamic of organizational survival. The Republic of Science, Polanyi continues, shows us anassociation of independent initiatives, combined towards an indeterminate achievement. It is disciplined andmotivated by serving a traditional authority, but this authority is dynamic; its continued existence depends onits constant self-renewal through the originality of its followers 47 . It is a society of explorers whichstrives towards an unknown future, which it believes to be accessible and worth achieving.The scientists strive towards a hidden reality, for the sake of intellectual satisfaction. And asthey satisfy themselves, they enlighten all men and are thus helping society to fulfill itsobligation towards intellectual self-improvement.He had noted that such an attitude was deliberately destroyed in the Soviet Union.Stalinism was a closed system, he asserts, and this would have disastrous effects on societalcohesion throughout the communist world the moment people came to realize this 48 . In anessay on The Message of the Hungarian Revolution, he notes how the political realm hadsubverted the scientific realm, and subsequently, Polanyi asserts, ‘Stalin’s regime virtuallyceased to exist when its basic conceptions of intellectual and moral reality lost their hold onthought’ 49 .A free society, on the other hand, may be seen to be bent in its entirety on exploringself-improvement. This suggest, he notes, a generalization of the principles governing theRepublic of Science. It appears that a society bent on discovery must advance by supportingindependent initiatives, co-coordinating themselves mutually to each other. Such adjustmentsmay include rivalries and opposing responses which, in society as a whole, will be far morefrequent than they are within science. Even so, all these independent initiatives must acceptfor their guidance a traditional authority, enforcing its own self-renewal by cultivatingoriginality among its followers. In his view of a free society, both its liberties and itsservitudes are determined by its striving for self-improvement, which in its turn isdetermined by the intimations of truths yet to be revealed calling on men to reveal them.For Boyd reading this at the time he became more and more engaged in the MilitaryReform Movement, and with his experience with organizational interests blocking promisingaircraft research and development while willfully promoting dysfunctional designs, thesewords must have sound very convincing. And it is not surprising so see several of thesethemes resurface in his essay, but also in the presentations Organic Design for Command andControl and The Strategic Game of ? and ?. Boyd would stress the importance of the tacitdimension, an organizational culture marked by trust and open communications, a tolerance46 Ibid, pp.55-56.47 Ibid, p.70.48 Ibid, p.31.49 Ibid, p.36.89