Michael Strevens
Department of Philosophy | New York University

Abstract

Modern science has done amazing things. What makes it so powerful — and so different from the attempts to understand nature made by the philosophers and monks of old? In part, its power comes from its ability to draw on and amplify elements of human rationality: logical reasoning, the obligation to provide support for every assertion, a commitment to overcome cultural biases, and personal interests. But another part of science’s power, this talk will suggest, derives from an unreasonably close-minded narrowness that channels unprecedented energy into observation and experimentation, achieving a level of focus and commitment to the excavation of empirical detail that would otherwise be unattainable. Science is in a certain sense irrational, then — but it is a very good thing!