Pl 100 Modern Science and Human Nature

 

Since the development of modern science in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, we in the Western world tend to see things and ourselves more in scientific terms, and less in terms of the supernatural and religious.  We do not see things or ourselves in the same way that the Greeks did in Plato’s time, or even in the same way that people did in the Middle Ages.  We no longer talk about teleology or natural purposes, an idea that was so important to ancient philosophers.  Many of us no longer have a sacramental world view, a view that was common during the Middle Ages when Christianity was at its height of influence and power.

 

Instead, we see ourselves as part of a universe ruled by scientific laws in a very impersonal and detached way. Many of our modern views are based on the assumption called  "scientism" which says that we can answer all questions scientifically, including questions about human behavior.   Desmond Morris’ scientific account of human behavior in terms of territory is one example of the application of the methods of modern science to an understanding of human nature and human behavior.  

 

This optimism about the ability of modern science and rationality to unravel all the mysteries of the universe has resulted in very high expectations for what science can achieve.  Science, until only very recently, has been the answer to making our modern world a better place.  Karl Marx believed that the scientific analysis of history (his historical materialism) provided the key to the liberation of humanity. However, as we begin the twenty first century, many of us are questioning our previous optimism about science.  We see a world in chaos threatened by a scientific and often profit driven mentality that thinks without a moral compass.  We see our environment being destroyed instead of nurtured.  We see technologies harnessed to create weapons of mass destruction instead of being used to enhance human life.  We have more and more powerful illnesses like AIDS that seem incurable. We witness an ever-increasing  world population that threatens the delicate balance of human needs and the environment. We experience the ever growing gap between the have’s and the have not’s in terms of quality of life, access to technology, meaningful labor, and so on.  As many social commentators and even scientists themselves have pointed out, science must become more aware of the social and moral implications of its findings. Stephen W. Hawking argues that science has described the “what” of the universe, but it has not explained the “why” behind it.  This yearning for the “why” has been with humanity since our first rational thought.  This desire for more than just the cold hard facts of scientific analysis is evoked by Walt Whitman in his poem “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” Mark Twain satirizes the "hubris" of man in his essay "The Lowest Animal".

 

Today, many modern thinkers are questioning the very idea of rational objectivity that has been the  foundation of modern science.  Postmodernism developed as a reaction to modernism (the scientific and rational approach to understanding the world). This movement questions whether a truly objective understanding of anything (art, literature, culture, values, the world) is at all possible.    Vaclav Havel argues that “Communism was defeated by life” and describes the need for a new politics in a postmodern world. Scientists themselves, like Jacob Bronowski and Hawking, ask whether we need to look at science with “new eyes.” They ask whether we need to expand and redefine science in order to break out of the traditional thinking which has always separated the sciences and the arts and which has contributed to the devaluing of all forms of life.  The selections you will read will be part of our discussion of the state of modern science today, its questioning of itself,  and its contribution to the modern understanding of human nature.

Prepared by Anne Knop, Senior Associate Professor of Philosophy, Manor College  Back to Home Page