ABSTRACT

NO NEED FOR OMNICOMPETENCE We have seen that science is not and does not need to be ‘omnicompetent’. It is not an independent, solitary intellectual citadel, the only scene of rational thought, nor is it a central government under which both poetry and philosophy are minor agencies. The idea of it as thus mysteriously set apart above the rest of life is, however, an important element in our current beliefs. Modern specialization tends to cut off the physical sciences from the rest of our thinking. What we ‘lay people’ (as we are significantly called) mostly notice about the sciences is simply their power. Technology impresses us so deeply that we are not much surprised by the claim that scientific methods ought to be extended to cover the rest of our thought. That positivistic claim – first made by Auguste Comte and repeated by many sages since – underlies many desperate attempts today in other studies, especially in the social sciences, to make themselves, in some sense, ever more ‘scientific’.