Scientific rationality reduces individual life to statistical ratios
Evidence
While science freed nature from inherent ends and stripped matter of all but quantifiable qualities, society freed men from the “natural” hierarchy of personal dependence and related them to each other in accordance with quantifiable qualities—namely, as units of abstract labor power, calculable in units of time. “By virtue of the rationalization of the modes of labor, the elimination of qualities is transferred from the universe of science to that of daily experience.” — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 583 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Economism reduces history to individual self-interest, technical change, or single factors of production; Modern Western science reduces all quality to measurable quantity; Economic rationality reduces individuals to obstacles in the production process (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Modern Western science reduces all quality to measurable quantity
#expands(0.95) - Scientific quantification of nature parallels society’s reduction of humans to abstract labor power.
#expands(0.90) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 583 - Economism reduces history to individual self-interest, technical change, or single factors of production
#expands(0.85) - Economic rationality reduces individuals to obstacles in the production process
#expands(0.85) - Technological rationality erodes individual critical reason and produces mechanical conformity
#expands(0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 23 - Scientific rationalism becomes an instrument of social domination
#expands(0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 141