mplex than an all-or-nothing rejection of the scientific mindset that was becoming increasingly popular in Swifts time.Instead of objecting to the use of science in general, Swift seems to have had problems with a particular form of scientific research, and it is with this type of science/scientist that Swift is primarily concerned in Gullivers Travels. The type of science that Swift attacks is inapplicable science, or pure theory, that type of research that has no apparent practical application. Even in a historical context, the origins of the current theory/practice dichotomy were already present (Fitzgerald 219). This distinction is an important part of science today, where those researchers who pursue problems of application are viewed as inherently less valuable than those scientists who deal in questions of pure theory. Swifts satire in Gullivers Travels is directed solely at those in the pure science category, who think of the practical as something they dont need to be concerned about.Swift skewers the impractical scientists of Laputa in his description of why the flying island has never been landed on a town as a disciplinary measure:if the Town intended to be destroyed should have in it any tall Rocks. [. . .] Or if it abound in high Spheres of Pillars of Stone, a sudden Fall might endanger the Bottom of under Surface of the Island. (144)Without explicitly saying it, the description forces the reader to recognize the absurdity of the fact that the Laputans have been able to achieve this technical marvel of gaining flight with an island, but they have not mastered the technology necessary to successfully land it. This contradiction is also a symbolic representation of the head in the clouds character of the Laputan scientists, so concerned with their thoughts and observations that they have to be roused with slaps from the inflated bladders on sticks devised specifically for this purpose (Patey 820).As an extension of this prot...
