BOOK REVIEW
NG FSP. 2022. A
Guide for Independent-minded Scientists. Forestry Research Institute
Malaysia, Kepong. 134 pp. ISBN 978-967-2810-6. RM55.00/USD33.00.
I am a
natural scientist by virtue of receiving a basic science degree in botany and a
PhD in systematic botany. Since 1969 until today, I have been a practicing
scientist. When I was in secondary school I had no idea what science was all
about and what a scientist did but in 1964 as I did well in science subjects in
my Lower School Certificate examination I was streamed by the school into the Form
IV science class and the rest was history. As late as in 1978 when I was
reading for a PhD degree I was still ignorant about what science was and incidentally
not exposed to the history of science, the discovery of science and let alone
the philosophy of science and yet I received a degree in Doctor of Philosophy
in systematic botany from the University of Reading, England. Everything about
systematic botany and science I took for granted until today.
After
reading a beautiful white-blue book entitled “A Guide for Independent-minded
Scientists” by Dr Francis SP Ng, it opened my mind to what are the actual and
expected attributes of a scientist. According to Dr Francis Ng, the term scientists
in the early days referred to those who practiced experimental science in
physical science, specifically in physics and astronomy. Later it was extended
to natural scientists by iconic personalities such as Darwin, Mendel, Wallace
and others.
In
British Malaya, science was introduced by the British officers who were mostly
natural scientists and professionals such as doctors and engineers trained in
Britain. I believed all the early text books we used in schools were written by
the western scientists. When I was in secondary school, subjects such as
biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics were taught by Malaysians; Mr Leong
Cheong Kye, Mr Lai Voon Poh, Mrs Leong and Mr M Yahambaran,
respectively and all trained by the British. In the 1960s, there were no non-local
science teachers who I came across except the America Peace Corps in 1967–1968
and in the University of Malaya I came across products of British Colonial
science too.
It was
interesting to lament that the centres of civilisations were in Asia, notably
China, India and the Middle East including Persia (now Iran) and Turkey.
However, the bulk of scientific advances have been made by the European and
later by the American and Far East scientists. There were some historians who
attributed many scientific discoveries made by these Asians scholars and
expanded, innovated and reproduced by the western scientists. I will not dwell
into that debate.
According
to Dr Francis Ng the pioneers of modern science were independent-minded
individuals who discovered things on their own and mostly by luck and chance and
furthermore, they were not paid handsomely to do their works as were the
scientists today. Today in Malaysia, all the scientists were paid by the
government either to teach in schools and universities or to do research in
institutes. They were government servants, paid to make discoveries and publish
their findings and most of them are not truly independent-minded at all. Dr Francis
Ng indeed termed them as “technicians” who daily, weekly, monthly and yearly
did their routine works to generate data and later published in local and
oversea journals without real impact to science. But of course, there are exceptions.
While doing his first degree in University of Tasmania in Australia,
Dr Francis had shown his interest in how science works. In particular, he was
inspired by his favorite professor of Zoology who taught science through stories
on scientific advancements and their challenges as opposed to his Professor of
Botany, who taught science as a series of facts. Upon returning to Malaysia, he
worked in FRIM and his routine works were observing and noting the salient features
and characters of how trees grow and branches formed and how seeds germinated. For
a botanist who has great interest in dendrology and taxonomy and the flora of
Malaysia, the publication of this book is greatly welcome. To mention
shortcomings in a book of such quality and by an experienced taxonomist and scientist
is unwarranted. The flaws are very minimal and are noted with reluctance.
The importance of philosophy to science has been evident
since earliest times of our civilisation but the
emergence of the philosophy of science is a comparatively recent development.
This was due to the works of professors of philosophy and thinkers who have realised the increasing importance of science in
intellectual development as well as in practical life and of scientists who
have realised the growing necessity of clear thinking
about the presupposition of their own hypotheses and theories. An adequate
grounding of both philosophy and science is therefore required of the students
of the philosophy of science, which I was deprived while reading for my PhD. It
is not too late, however, to convey an adequate understanding of philosophical
principles to all of us whose previous experience has been limited to science.
This is what Dr Francis Ng advocated. Dr Francis Ng also advocated students to understand
the theory of science—its analysis, knowledge, perception, thought and
definitions. However, the structure of theory is more complicated that require
logic, deduction, axioms, theorems, models, the foundation of mathematics and
statistics including both the validation and spectrum of theory which Dr Ng has
no time to deal with in this small book. Students are required to read books in
this discipline.
This book is very useful for science students and also for
professional scientists as well as naturalists and laymen. It should complement
the existing books in philosophy of science, therefore it should be in the
libraries of all universities and research institutes and future students of
science must read it. This is an extra-ordinary observation and thought which
records the outstanding scholarship of the author who has combined his field
experience with great skill in writing. Though the book is published late in
his and my career, it is not too late to think about this and being
independent-minded. The author is to be complimented on his achievement though
he has retired.
MA Latiff