ABSTRACT

According to the classical conception of science as rational knowledge, the perfection of reason can best be seen in the most developed sciences. But modernistic anti-rationalism is bent on minimizing the role of reason in science,–even as it seeks to minimize the significance of science itself by regarding it as a mere fiction or convenient mnemonic device for arranging the substance of “experience.” According to the currently fashionable view, it is of the very essence of scientific method to distrust all reason and to rely on the facts only. Science may be distinguished from ordinary common-sense knowledge by the rigour with which it subordinates all other considerations to the pursuit of the ideal of certainty, exactness, universality, and system. When the empiricist does recognize the influence of previous assumptions in determining the course of a scientific research, he dismisses them lightly as working hypotheses. Actually every scientific investigation begins as a question or problem.