Philosophy of the Natural Sciences [1928c]

Abstract

There are those who have called our era the century of the natural sciences and yet, while fully acknowledging its scientific and technological achievements, have made the accusation that there is no appreciation of intellectual or philosophical problems nowadays. This judgment, however, reflects a highly superficial characterization. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a greater misunderstanding of the spirit of our age than this short-sighted rejection of the positive forces in which technology and industry, science and objectivity, are grounded; it is misplaced humanism. On the one hand, such a judgment does an injustice to the humanities, for in spite of technology and industrialization, humanistic endeavours are flourishing; this is clear to anyone who has a broad conception of the liberal arts and who makes an unbiased attempt to understand the variety of approaches within the literary, aesthetic, and sociological spheres, even where they do not wear the professional cloak. On the other hand, and more significantly, calling modem science unphilosophical displays a critical lack of understanding. Quite the contrary: there has seldom been an era in which philosophical ideas have been so deeply at work in the natural sciences as they are today.