ABSTRACT
Kirtley Mather's starting point is the social conflicts of age: the disintegration of traditional economic relations and political institutions, and the challenge of new forms of social existence to each. Mather sees in science the primary stimulus of the organization of workers for specific goals. Science provides, in addition to the material conditions of economic and social freedom, the conditions, which ensure the wholesale emancipation of men from ancient superstitions, myths and rituals. It has provided a touchstone for the testing of all ideas. The steady rise in scientific discovery and application has transformed the industrial and commercial basis of human life. Science permeates the innermost regions of social existence. In an understandable mood of optimism generated by the ability of science to conquer the dread of material impoverishment, Mather notes "science and technology have leveled all physical barriers to the good life of universal freedom.".
