Volume 27, Issue 3, 2017
Values and Ideals. Theory and Practice: Part IV
Małgorzata Czarnocka
Pages 139-156
The Ideal and Praxis of Science
My reflections focus on the ideal of science and the contemporary condition of science. I believe the distinction between the ideal of science and praxis of science is essential in inquiries into what science is today, what its position is and should be in the human world. I analyse the critical stance towards science that is so widespread in contemporary philosophy. It is demonstrated that today’s ever-widening chasm between the ideal of science (its nature, established anthropically already in ancient times) and its contemporary praxis is the main problem hampering the science of our day and a problem for the entire human world, present and future. In the paper it is proved inter alia that main philosophical arguments against science (first of all, arguments about the instrumentalisation of the reason by science and the oppressive role of science in today’s world) arouse serious doubts.