Scientific discovery inescapably implies a transcendent unknown that ties science to politics

Evidence

If science is the “discovery” of formerly unknown reality, is this reality not conceived of in a certain sense as transcendent? And is it not thought that there still exists something “unknown” and hence transcendent? And does the concept of science as “creation” not then mean that it too is “politics”? Everything depends on seeing whether the creation involved is “arbitrary”, or whether it is rational—i.e. “useful” to men in that it enlarges their concept of life, and raises to a higher level (develops) life itself. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 917

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: The discovery-vs-creation distinction in science, and the criterion of ‘enlarging man’s concept of life’, is a key epistemological tool in Gramsci’s toolkit.

Related

• Science is political activity because it transforms what men are (similarity 0.85)
• This selection is incomplete because the paragraph was truncated in the source. (similarity 0.80)
• Scientific findings are provisional intermediate states that may later prove wrong (similarity 0.80)