Premium
Drawing the Line An Examination of Conscientious Objection in Science
Author(s) -
CHALK ROSEMARY
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1989.tb15050.x
Subject(s) - library science , residence , annals , period (music) , sociology , political science , management , history , classics , computer science , philosophy , demography , economics , aesthetics
Shortly after the end of World War 11, in 1946, the American Quaker pacifist A. J. Muste initiated a series of letters to Albert Einstein. Muste’s first letter, which he circulated broadly, was in response to a public appeal by Einstein’s Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists urging the public to donate funds to support the scientists’ efforts to develop national and international controls limiting the use and development of nuclear weapons. Throughout his correspondence with Einstein, Muste argued that if the scientists’ message was to be taken seriously by the general public, it needed to be accompanied by an expression of moral conviction by those deeply concerned with the problems presented by atomic weapons. He called upon Einstein and other atomic scientists to renounce publicly any further involvement in building these weapons: