RE: Science Poll!
March 22, 2022 at 4:43 pm
(This post was last modified: March 22, 2022 at 8:23 pm by vulcanlogician.)
I'm not really sure if it's what you're getting at, Istvan, but I don't think it's all that helpful to making good judgments about science by looking at it through an existentialist lens.
An existentialist might (perhaps correctly) point out that science is but one facet of human existence, and that human existence itself is more fundamental. Sure. But, to me, I see this more as a prompt to focus on human existence rather than a prompt to produce criticisms of science generally. I think what the existentialist wants to avoid is us gleaning greater truths about the meaningfulness of our existence by simply regurgitating scientific facts. I agree with the existentials a great deal on this. You shouldn't do this.
But if you want to take it further than that, or claim that science is insufficient or flawed in some general way, I don't think that's a good line of criticism to pursue. Just as it may be erroneous for someone to think answers to questions of meaning can come from science, so to is it erroneous to think a good criticism of science can come from the fact that existence is more fundamental to our being.
An existentialist might (perhaps correctly) point out that science is but one facet of human existence, and that human existence itself is more fundamental. Sure. But, to me, I see this more as a prompt to focus on human existence rather than a prompt to produce criticisms of science generally. I think what the existentialist wants to avoid is us gleaning greater truths about the meaningfulness of our existence by simply regurgitating scientific facts. I agree with the existentials a great deal on this. You shouldn't do this.
But if you want to take it further than that, or claim that science is insufficient or flawed in some general way, I don't think that's a good line of criticism to pursue. Just as it may be erroneous for someone to think answers to questions of meaning can come from science, so to is it erroneous to think a good criticism of science can come from the fact that existence is more fundamental to our being.
