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Historical Note

The Committee to Organize the Conference on Science and the Modern World View was convened jointly by the Academy’s Institute for the Unity of Science program (1947-ca.1959) and the broader Academy leadership and was officially active from 1955-1956. Academy Executive Officer Ralph Burhoe initially led the efforts, however later appointed Gerald Holton in January 1956 to be Chair. The Conference was held May 5-6, 1956, in Cambridge, Massachusetts to honor Percy Williams Bridgman and Philipp G. Frank. At their request the program did not to focus on their work, but on the intersection of science and the humanities, which they advanced.  Specifically, it examined the scientific world view from the seventeenth to the twentieth century and evaluated the place of the humanities in the learned community of the mid-twentieth century.

The subject of the conference was first proposed on June 10, 1955, at a meeting of the Academy’s Institute for the Unity of Science program (1947-ca.1959) called by Philipp Frank. The idea to honor Bridgman and Frank was developed later that year, coinciding with their retirement. Speakers included Georgio De Santillana, Henry Guerlac, Harcourt Brown, Philipp Frank, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Jerome S. Bruner, P.W. Bridgman, Charles Morris, Howard Mumford Jones, and featured other presenters. The proceedings of the conference were first published as the Winter 1958 issue of Daedalus, and later that same year by Beacon Press as Science and the Modern Mind.

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation.

Scope and Content

This series is contained within the Academy Archives’ Record Group XXI-B: Academy Projects and Programs. It contains the administrative records from 1955-1957 relating to the Conference on Science and the Modern World View, held May 5-6, 1956.

The series comprises correspondence primarily, but also includes photographs of the participants, copies of the conference program, and sample drafts of some of the presentations. Correspondence prior to 1956 is mostly from Academy Executive Officer Ralph Burchard. After the appointment of Academy Editor Gerald Holton as chair to the organizing committee, correspondence is primarily his incoming and outgoing correspondence. Correspondence primarily concerns the general arrangements for the conference, but also includes copies of invitations sent and their responses, and grant correspondence with the National Science Foundation.

The series also contains meeting minutes of the Institute, some budgetary records, financial records relating to the grant, invitation lists, and internal memoranda and notes by administrative staff. It contains only a small portion of records related to the resulting publication and contains no drafts of the publications.

Arrangement

Processing for the series utilized MPLP principles, thus minimum preservation steps were taken, and folder titles listed in the finding aid are as they appear on the actual folders, except for a folder split into pre- and post- folders to accommodate the number of papers. Original order was generally maintained, with the exception that conference invitations from Science and the Modern World View, Conf. - General Correspondence [1955-1957] were placed in Science and the Modern World View, Conf. - pre-Conference Correspondence [1955-1956].

Volume

1 records center carton (0.5 linear feet)

Preferred Citation

[Item title, date]. Record Group XXI-B: Academy Projects – Conference to Organize the Conference on Science and the Modern World View, 1955-1957. Archives, ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿âapp, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Subjects

Bridgman, P. W. (Percy Williams), 1882-1961
Frank, Philipp, 1884-1966
Science -- Social aspects