A Machine or a Self? is a question
which is crucial to an inquiry into the identity of man. I take as the starting
point for an answer, and for my inquiry, an equally crucial and basic
proposition. My fundamental assumption at the outset is that man is a part of
nature.
This simple proposition seems
innocent enough, and neutral. Nearly and educated men accept it now: the Bible
readers as well as the agnostics, the Sunday strollers and the earnest haunters
of museums. In the latter half of the twentieth century, it seems self- evident
to say that man is a part of nature, in the same sense that a stone is, or a
cactus, or a camel. How easily, indeed, these three childhood categories rise
to our lips from animal, Vegetable or Mineral to exhaust the universe. Yet this
bland proposition contains the explosive charge which in this century has split
open the self-assurance of Western man.
For to assert that man is a part of nature
surely denies (or seems to deny) that he is unique. This is the hidden charge
that troubles yet silence us; it is the perpetual heresy, for which men went to
the stake at least as long as 1600. Giordano Bruno was asked then to abjure,
and would not, his wild belief that the earth we stand on is not the only
world, and that we are not the only chosen creatures in the multitude of
worlds. This was a piece of Renaissance extravagance that was happy to have man
play neither the master nor slave of fate, but simply play in the boundless
plenty of nature, and to set both of them free together. But it did not, and
still does not, win over the jealous man who wants to guard the sense of his
immortal station. He wants to feel that he was cast from birth in a
supernatural mould; larger than life, or at least larger than nature.
Summary
Bronowski starts the essay with a
question: Is man a machine or a self? His belief is that man is a part of
nature. Almost all educated men accept it. In the latter half of the twentieth
century also people believes that man is a part of nature in the same sense
that a stone, or a cactus, or a camel is. But this proposition has made the
Western man lose his self-assurance. He lost his self-assurance because this
statement means that man is not unique. Bruno was burnt at stake because he
would not give up his belief that this earth is not the only world nor man the
only chosen creature. Man still wants to feel that he is unique and also he is
larger than life or at least larger than nature.
Important Questions
1. What is the thrust of
Bronowski’s argument throughout the essay?
2. What seems self-evident in the
latter half of the twentieth century regarding man’s relationship with nature?
3. Why was Giordano Bruno burnt
at stake?
4. Do you agree with the idea
that man is a part of nature? Elaborate with reasons.
5. What is wrong according to J.
Bronowski, if man ‘wants to feel that he was cast from birth in a supernatural
mould; larger than life, or at least larger than nature.’ Discuss the views of the author
expressed in this essay.
5. Mam is a part of nature, in
the same sense that a stone is, or a cactus, or a camel. Comment.
6. Why does man, according to J.
Bronowski, believe, he was cast from birth in a supernatural mould?
Source: Professional Communication by Malti Agarwal