Sorry for the late post today! I'm currently at a conference for work in Atlanta and didn't have enough time to write a post this morning. The conference finishes Wednesday so I might be a little inconsistent with my posting till then. That being said, I would like to share a quote with you all today. To be honest, I have no idea where I read this or came across this post but I saved it in Evernote and thought I would share it with you all today! The quote is from Leon Wieseltier (don't know anything about him) and it has to do with the way we treat science in our day and age. Here goes:
It is entirely typical of the scientific tyranny in American intellectual life that scientists have been invited to do the work of philosophers. The problem of the limits of science is not a scientific problem.
That last sentence is so insightful. Something we don't really think about in our day is that Science, as a discipline, has limits. Science cannot answer all of our questions. One of the most important questions that Science is unable to answer is "What are the limits of Science". A scientists cannot answer this question. Moreover, this question cannot be addressed by the scientific method.
This is something that Walker Percy dealt a lot with in all of his writings (most scathingly in Lost in the Cosmos). Percy was concerned with what he called "Scientism". He believed that America was beginning to turn to Science to answer all of her questions and in doing so was limiting the answers she could receive.
Food for thought.
Michael
Post Script - If you know anything about Leon Wieseltier or the quote I have above I would greatly appreciate your input!
