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→Typology
We see this in the [[United States]] today, whenever [[Barack Obama]] speaks of "putting science back in its rightful place" by providing unlimited and unrestricted federal funds for [[embryonic stem cell]] research, for example. But Ayn Rand had a more dire fear: that science in the hands of the government could and probably would inevitably find itself used in the service of tyranny, and the creation of weapons of mass destruction.
We see this in the [[United States]] today, whenever [[Barack Obama]] speaks of "putting science back in its rightful place" by providing unlimited and unrestricted federal funds for [[embryonic stem cell]] research, for example. But Ayn Rand had a more dire fear: that science in the hands of the government could and probably would inevitably find itself used in the service of tyranny, and the creation of weapons of mass destruction.
Furthermore, Robert Stadler is another type: of the [[university]] [[professor]], with [[professor values]] to match. True, he did not have a full faculty appointment while at the Institute. At best, he was an adjunct professor at nearby [[Dartmouth College]]. But a professor is a professor, and professor values are professor values.
In addition, Ayn Rand saw the apparent dichotomy between "pure" and "applied" science as a false one, and suggested that if any principle of science could be valuable to man, then some ''private'' individual or group would be willing to fund it. Robert Stadler is a type of any scientist who fails to realize that, who thinks that private funding is somehow dishonorable merely because it ''is'' private, and furthermore, that applied science is somehow dishonorable because it ''is'' applied to the problems that real human beings deal with every day. Such a person very often forgets that public funding can often lead to the creation of instruments of tyranny and death, because after all, the government is that institution having a monopoly on the initiation of force.
In addition, Ayn Rand saw the apparent dichotomy between "pure" and "applied" science as a false one, and suggested that if any principle of science could be valuable to man, then some ''private'' individual or group would be willing to fund it. Robert Stadler is a type of any scientist who fails to realize that, who thinks that private funding is somehow dishonorable merely because it ''is'' private, and furthermore, that applied science is somehow dishonorable because it ''is'' applied to the problems that real human beings deal with every day. Such a person very often forgets that public funding can often lead to the creation of instruments of tyranny and death, because after all, the government is that institution having a monopoly on the initiation of force.
[[John Galt]] provides a direct contrast to Robert Stadler. Galt keeps and runs his own laboratory, at his own expense. Then he publishes his discoveries ''for a price'' in the form of lectures to industrialists who could use his discoveries in their own industries. So naturally Galt turns his research to questions that might have a practical application. In a society much larger than Galt's Gulch, Galt would publish and sell a journal for the same readership.
But this illustrates another serious problem with scientific research today. No scientist, who has published anything for commercial sale, may publish the same research in any "peer-reviewed" journal. (Walter F. Brown, of the Center for scientific Creation, has this very problem with his own work.) Thus the mind-body dichotomy rears its ugly head, even in editorial decision-making.
Ayn Rand also made a minor point, and a scathing one, against scientists who try to get their way through name-dropping. In virtually any Western country, untold numbers of scientific institutions, and especially [[hospital]]s and various lecture and [[laboratory]] halls in medical schools, often sell or offer to a "prominent" physician or a member of the "generous community" the privilege of having his or her name on a building wing and his or her portrait in oil in the hallway. Indeed, many such institutions build veritable [[shrine]]s to such people. While some of these people deserve some recognition for some extraordinary discovery (like the techniques of [[aorta|aortic]] [[aneurysm]]al repair and other even more breathtaking techniques of cardiovascular [[surgery]] developed by [[Michael E. DeBakey]]), or even for years of service, other such people win this recognition merely by paying for it. Ayn Rand perhaps sought to illustrate what would happen when an institution, ostensibly dedicated to science, might be taken over by a group of people who would ''not'' respect the owner of that name. In such a situation, all the name-dropping that the person could do would avail him nothing.
Ayn Rand also made a minor point, and a scathing one, against scientists who try to get their way through name-dropping. In virtually any Western country, untold numbers of scientific institutions, and especially [[hospital]]s and various lecture and [[laboratory]] halls in medical schools, often sell or offer to a "prominent" physician or a member of the "generous community" the privilege of having his or her name on a building wing and his or her portrait in oil in the hallway. Indeed, many such institutions build veritable [[shrine]]s to such people. While some of these people deserve some recognition for some extraordinary discovery (like the techniques of [[aorta|aortic]] [[aneurysm]]al repair and other even more breathtaking techniques of cardiovascular [[surgery]] developed by [[Michael E. DeBakey]]), or even for years of service, other such people win this recognition merely by paying for it. Ayn Rand perhaps sought to illustrate what would happen when an institution, ostensibly dedicated to science, might be taken over by a group of people who would ''not'' respect the owner of that name. In such a situation, all the name-dropping that the person could do would avail him nothing.