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PARTISAN REVIEW
(2) Modern science is by definition unfinished, because it
progresses toward the infinite, whereas ancient science in every one
of its forms presented itself as finished; its actual development was
in every case shortlived, and it never set its own development as its
conscious goal. Modern scientists have understood that an all-embrac–
ing world-system, which deduces everything that exists from one or
a few principles, is impossible. A world-system has other sources,
and can only claim universal validity if scientific critique is relaxed
and particulars are mistaken: for absolutes. Such unprecedented
systematizations as those achieved by modern physics cover only one
aspect of reality. Through them reality as a whole has become more
split up and deprived of foundations than it ever before seemed to the
human mind. Hence the incompleteness of the modern world as
compared to the Greek cosmos.
(3) The ancient sciences remained
scattered,
unrelated to one
another. They did not aim at constituting an all-embracing body of
specific knowledge, whereas the modern sciences strive to be integrated
into a universal frame of reference. Though a true world-system is
no longer possible for them, a cosmos of the sciences is still conceiv–
able. Our sense of the inadequacy of each special branch of knowl–
edge demands that each science be connected with knowledge as
a whole.
(4) The modern sciences attach little value to the
possibilities
of thought; they recognize the idea only in definite and concrete
knowledge, after it has proved its worth as an istrument of dis–
covery and been subjected to infinite modifications in the process of
investigation. True, there is a certain similarity between ancient and
modern atomic theory, in so far as the general pattern is concerned.
But the ancient theory was merely an intrinsically finished interpreta–
tion of possibilities, based on plausible explanations of available ex–
perience, while the modern theory, in constant association with
experience, undergoes perpetual change by confirmation and dis–
proof and is itself an implement of investigation.
(6) Today a scientific attitude has become possible: an at–
titude of inquiry toward all phenomena; today the scientist can
know certain things clearly and definitely, he can distinguish be–
tween what he knows and what he does not know; and he has
amassed an unprecedented abundance of knowledge (how very lit-
