The Scope of Science
This article was originally published in the Summer ’05 issue of Revisions, The Inaugural Issue.
In a chemistry textbook written and used by a a long-time Princeton professor, the author remarks that “the study of science will not lead you to Ultimate Truth.”1 However, throughout the text he refers to nature (with a capital ‘N’) as the starting point of everything. Somehow, the absolute status of nature, which he praises for its creativity and omnipotence, is deified by a methodology that cannot attain absolute truth. The author makes a religious claim about nature that he himself would concede is unsubstantiated by his empirical research or by general work in science, but is still legitimate. Something is wrong here.
- I withhold the reference here out of respect for the author. [↩]