ABSTRACT
The common sense opinion of science is that it is knowledge about any object, and that its aim is simply to say what is. This general opinion implies two suppositions: that the realm of science is unrestricted, comprehending the totality of being, and that the relation of science to its object is merely a receptive one. One way to approach the truth about science is to notice that science is not about everything; for example, there is no science of the individual. The emergence of modern natural science is described merely as a progressive event: that Aristotelian nonsense was put aside, scholastic boredom overcome, and medieval superstition refuted. The alienation of nature which lies at the origin of modern science means that there is a gap between the practitioners of science and immediately experienced nature. The origin of idealistic thinking resides in the cleavage between man and nature. As modern natural science implies this cleavage, it is itself inevitably idealistic.
