Speech Delivered at the Inaugural Meeting of the Natural Science Research Society of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of Speech Delivered at the Inaugural Meeting of the Natural Science Research Society of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:
- Quotation in the Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1967.
- Speech at the Founding Meeting of the Natural Science Research Association of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, First English Edition, Vol. 7, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 2005.
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is a speech delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at the inaugural meeting of the Natural Science Research Society of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 5th of February, 1940. It was first published in the Xin Zhonghua Bao (15th of March, 1940).
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE NATURAL SCIENCE RESEARCH SOCIETY OF THE SHAANXI-GANSU-NINGXIA BORDER REGION
#Mao Zedong
#5th of February, 1940
#★
I am all in favour of today's meeting to found the Natural Science Research Society, because natural science is a good thing. It can solve problems related to the necessities of our daily lives, such as food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, so everyone should approve of it and study it. Some people maintain that China has never had natural science. That is incorrect. In China, from the very beginning of human existence, people have had the need for food, and food can only be provided by production, so there were sprouts of natural science, which gradually developed later on. It is true, however, that in the past, natural science was not developed, so as to constitute a system, that is all.
Natural science is one of humanity's weapons in its fight for freedom. For the purpose of attaining freedom in society, people must use social science to understand and change society and carry out social revolution. For the purpose of attaining freedom in the world of nature, people must use natural science to understand, conquer, and change nature and thus attain freedom from nature. Natural science should be employed under the guidance of social science to transform nature, but the development of natural science is obstructed in capitalist society. So, this irrational social system must be transformed.
The Border Region, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, has undergone a social transformation. The relations of production have been changed, thus creating the preconditions for the transformation of nature. The productive forces have thus been increasing daily. This is borne out by the movement for production in the Border Region, and the agricultural and industrial exhibitions. Thus, the present social system of the Border Region is conducive to the development of natural science.
The economy of the Border Region is still backward, but just for that reason, it is more significant to work on it. As long as we all try hard, we definitely can turn this into a better place.
Marxism embraces natural science, and everyone should begin to study natural science. Otherwise, they cannot be accounted an excellent revolutionary, because there will be so many things in this world they do not understand.