PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE
873
is questionable. The modern sciences are altogether in error, witness
the ruinous consequences for the soul and for life in general of the
rational attitude. Philosophy itself
is
not a science and for that very
reason its element is authentic truth.
Both reactions-submission to science and rejection of science
conceived as cogent, methodical and universally valid knowledge–
seem to spell the end of philosophy. Whether it is the slave of science
or whether it denies all science, it has in :,:ither case ceased to be
philosophy.
The seeming triumph of the sciences over philosophy has for
some decades created a situation in which philosophers go back to
various sources in search of true philosophy.
If
such a thing is found,
the question of the relation between philosophy and science will be
answered, both in a theoretical and in a concrete sense. It
is
a practical
question of the utmost urgency.
We shall appreciate the full weight of this problem if we con–
sider its historical origin.
It
developed from three complexly inter–
twined factors. These are: a. The spirit of modern science; b. The
ancient and ever recurrent attempt to achieve universal philosophical
knowledge; c. The philosophical concept of truth, as it was first and
for all time elucidated in Plato.
Ad a. The modern sciences, developed only in the last few
centuries, have brought into the world a new scientific attitude which
existed neither in Asia, nor in antiquity, nor in the Middle Ages.
Even the Greeks, to be sure, conceived of science as methodical,
cogently certain, and universally valid knowledge. But the modern
sciences have not only brought out these basic attributes of science
with greater purity (a task which has not yet been completed),
they have also given new form and new foundation to the purpose,
scope ap.d unity of their fields of inquiry. I shall indicate certain of
their fundamental characteristics:
(1) To modern science,
nothing is indifferent.
In its eyes,
every fact, even the smallest and ugliest, the most distant and most
alien, is a legitimate object of inquiry for the very reason that it
exists. Science has become truly universal. There is nothing that can
evade it. Nothing must be hidden or passed over in silence; nothing
must remain a mystery.
