- Title
- The sciences and humanities in a unity of knowledge
- Creator
- Blackford, Russell
- Relation
- Science Unlimited?: The Challenges of Scientism p. 11-29
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226498287.001.0001
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Many questions must be investigated by methods that are not “scientific,” in the popular and historical senses of that word. In particular, much legitimate and rational inquiry within the humanities cannot meaningfully be classified as scientific. At the same time, there is no clear boundary between the sciences and the humanities. In principle, all academic disciplines contribute to a unity of knowledge. Nor does any cluster of academic disciplines hold a monopoly on particular methods of inquiry. Neither the sciences nor the humanities have access to reliable supernatural methods, but insistence on this point should not be denigrated as “scientism.” It would be better, in fact, to avoid talk of scientism and to employ more precise terminology and concepts where needed. For example, we can speak of philistinism about the humanities and of inappropriate mimicry by humanities scholars of the superficial trappings of science.
- Subject
- humanities; rational inquiry; scientism; unity of knowledge
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1385584
- Identifier
- uon:32252
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780226498140
- Language
- eng
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