Established science rationalizes the prevailing world without altering its existential structure.

Evidence

A provocative statement, which is easily minimized, and I take the liberty of a possible overinterpretation. The statement does not refer simply to the fact that, in spite of non-Euclidean geometry, we still perceive and act in three-dimensional space; or that, in spite of the “statistical” concept of causality, we still act, in common sense, in accord with the “old” laws of causality. Nor does the statement contradict the perpetual changes in the world of daily practice as the result of “applied mathematics.” Much more may be at stake: namely, the inherent limit of the established science and scientific method, by virtue of which they extend, rationalize, and insure the prevailing Lebenswelt without altering its existential structure—that is without envisaging a qualitatively new mode of “seeing” and qualitatively new relations between men and between man and nature. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 611

Categorization

• XREF: This is the crux of one-dimensionality applied to science itself: even revolutionary science only extends the same experiential universe rather than envisioning qualitatively new modes of seeing. — connects to: All science necessarily functions as ideology because no thinker escapes subjective positioning — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 711; Rational self-preservation conquers nature only by imitating nature’s own rigidity — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 63; Science must produce a legitimating philosophical discourse about its own rules — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 87 (+3 more)
• QUESTION: Marcuse acknowledges this is ‘a possible overinterpretation’ — worth chasing whether Husserl’s text actually licenses the stronger reading.

Broader Connections

• All science necessarily functions as ideology because no thinker escapes subjective positioning #expands (0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 711
• Scientific theories are superstructures explained by history, not causes of it. #corroborates (0.82) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1652
• Science must produce a legitimating philosophical discourse about its own rules #complicates (0.80) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 87
• Rational self-preservation conquers nature only by imitating nature’s own rigidity #expands (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 63