The science-philosophy split reflects differing historical projects, not progress
Evidence
The separation of science from philosophy is itself a historical event. Aristotelian physics was a part of philosophy and, as such, preparatory to the “first science”—ontology. The Aristotelian concept of matter is distinguished from the Galilean and post-Galilean not only in terms of different stages in the development of scientific method (and in the discovery of different ‘layers” of reality), but also, and perhaps primarily, in terms of different historical projects, of a different historical enterprise which established a different nature as well as society. Aristotelian physics becomes objectively wrong with the new experience and apprehension of nature, with the historical establishment of a new subject and object-world, and the falsification of Aristotelian physics then extends backward into the past and surpassed experience and apprehension. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 680
Categorization
- XREF: Marcuse’s historicization of science connects to the paradigm-shift critiques of scientific objectivity (Kuhn) that this reader’s critical-theory work touches. — connects to: Science’s takeover severed reflection from speculation and degraded both; Scientific thought separated facts from values because philosophy’s values proved ineffective — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 496; Fair philosophical comparison requires correlating historical epochs, not mixing eras — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 440 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Fair philosophical comparison requires correlating historical epochs, not mixing eras
#corroborates(0.85) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 440 - Philosophy and history are indivisible, forming a single bloc
#corroborates(0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1240 - Intellectual change proceeds through uneven breaks rather than tradition or rupture
#qualifies(0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 180