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Single Idea 19675

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism ]

Full Idea

Ever since Kant, to think science as a philosopher has been to claim that science harbours a meaning other than the one delivered by science itself.

Gist of Idea

Since Kant, philosophers have claimed to understand science better than scientists do

Source

Quentin Meillassoux (After Finitude; the necessity of contingency [2006], 5)

Book Ref

Meillassoux: 'After Finitude: the necessity of contingency', ed/tr. Brassier,R [Bloomsbury 2008], p.119

A Reaction

The point is that science discovered objectivity (via the mathematising of nature), and Kant utterly rejected objectivity, by enmeshing the human mind in every possible scientific claim. This makes Meillassoux and I very cross.

Related Idea

Idea 19674 The Copernican Revolution decentres the Earth, but also decentres thinking from reality [Meillassoux]

The 30 ideas with the same theme [science is the way to solve philosophical problems]:

3653 My Meditations are the complete foundation of my physics [Descartes]
8935 Without philosophy, science is barren and futile [Hegel]
12114 Science can drown in detail, so we need broad scientists (to keep out the metaphysicians) [Comte]
12116 Only positivist philosophy can terminate modern social crises [Comte]
14764 I am saturated with the spirit of physical science [Peirce]
14782 Philosophy is an experimental science, resting on common experience [Peirce]
20143 Scientific knowledge is nothing without a prior philosophical 'faith' [Nietzsche]
14859 If philosophy controls science, then it has to determine its scope, and its value [Nietzsche]
6117 Philosophy should be built on science, to reduce error [Russell]
8378 Philosophers usually learn science from each other, not from science [Russell]
5434 Philosophy is similar to science, and has no special source of wisdom [Russell]
7081 Philosophy is not separate from or above empirical science [Neurath]
23508 Science is all the true propositions [Wittgenstein]
5179 Philosophy deals with the questions that scientists do not wish to handle [Ayer]
16943 Philosophy is continuous with science, and has no external vantage point [Quine]
6267 A culture needs to admit that knowledge is more extensive than just 'science' [Putnam]
6272 'True' and 'refers' cannot be made scientically precise, but are fundamental to science [Putnam]
1489 Modern philosophy tends to be a theory-constructing extension of science, but there is also problem-solving [Nagel]
13407 All worthwhile philosophy is synthetic theorizing, evaluated by experience [Papineau]
7068 If infatuation with science leads to bad scientism, its rejection leads to obscurantism [Critchley]
20449 Science gives us an excessively theoretical view of life [Critchley]
6844 Scientism is the view that everything can be explained causally through scientific method [Critchley]
6123 Empirical investigation can't discover if holes exist, or if two things share a colour [Merricks]
19675 Since Kant, philosophers have claimed to understand science better than scientists do [Meillassoux]
11054 Scientism says most knowledge comes from the exact sciences [Hanna]
14897 We should abandon intuitions, especially that the world is made of little things, and made of something [Ladyman/Ross]
14905 The supremacy of science rests on its iterated error filters [Ladyman/Ross]
14936 A metaphysics based on quantum gravity could result in almost anything [Ladyman/Ross]
14001 People who use science to make philosophical points don't realise how philosophical science is [Markosian]
16567 Scientists know everything about nothing, philosophers nothing about everything [Sagan,D]