But, as Edmunds argues, "the story of science is contradictory from the start. Its pioneers were people not only of exceptional ability, but of admirable worth. Their sole aim was the advancement of knowledge in service to life. Yet this same science, inspired though it was by selfless motives, has become the instrument for the callous disregard of man, beasts, plants, and the air we breathe. It has released untold greed for power, not only power over things but also over men. In unscrupulous hands the science of today presents the greatest menace the world has known".

Surveying the origins of science in a world view permeated by disinterested inquiry, mathematical reason, and the view of nature as a rational whole, Edmunds takes us through the last five hundred years, surveying the thinking and achievements of giants such as Copernicus, Galileo, Harvey, Newton, Goethe, and Einstein. Edmunds points out how science has vastly enabled humanity to gain its control of outer nature while at the same rime has diminished inner vision and moral certainty. He argues that we need to wrest our sense of identity away from the cold, mechanistic, computerized world where we are merely another part of nature to be engineered and manipulated.