Scientism

Enthusiasts for science go too far when they argue for the omniscience of science as though the discipline has finally arrived at some form of self-perfection from which all issues, of whatever kind, can be judged - absolutely - to be precisely such and such by its infallible methods. This form of intellectual arrogance - sometimes called "scientism" - is NOT a reputable scientific position, but an unscientific bias about science that many scientists hold-to almost like a faith-based religion. With the stubborn persistance of scientism in western intellectual history, it's no wonder that science's daunting project of trying to understand all of physical reality has, more than just a few times, fallen victim to foolish prejudices, misguided prejudgements, and false theories!

Those rationalists possessed of unlimited belief in power of reason must face a difficult truth: humans are forever condemned only to a "partial" comprehension of the material world - no matter how much understanding or control over nature is ever attained. This is the case because our incorrigibly "finite" intellectual capacity guarantees that it will always be so. Hence, science is, and eternally will be, on the road to self-discovery, self-correction, self-creation, and even self-limitaion - a perpetual work in progress, as it were. And there is no telling what "magic " - what wild, mind-twisting, seemingly irrational truths - might be waiting just right around philosophical corner poised to be revealed by the devoted lover of knowledge.

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