ABSTRACT
The 20th century will surely be remembered as a period of remarkable calamity, vigorous intellectual activity, and striking technological progress. For the first time in history, the development of rapid forms of communication and transportation shrunk the effective size of the world so that many of its citizens were made aware of events occurring in far-distant locations and came to appreciate cultural differences more directly than was previously possible. Among the many trends and events for which the century may be remembered, however, one will surely be the ascendancy of science and scientific thinking. As part of a set of ideological presumptions glorifying science and logical positivism while deriding religion and spirituality, a widespread belief in the boundless merits of objectivity developed. Given adequate resources and ample time, scientists have argued, they will be able to reduce the mysteries of the universe, as well as the mysteries of life and death, to objectifiable processes and events. This set of beliefs hastened the separation of the social sciences from philosophy and fostered the illusion that social scientists could identify with clarity and insight the circumstances and conditions that maximized the quality of human existence and human development.
