Does science have all the answers?
Science occupies an increasingly important place in our modern civilization. Since Europe emerged from the Middle Ages in the 15th century, the scientific community has played an increasingly important and influential role in shaping the leaders of the Western world. Over time, various scientific movements have emerged, such as empiricism and positivism.
The first of these, empiricism, is based on observing the natural world and attempting to explain how it functions, initially through words and later, as mathematics developed, through equations. With the development of science, another movement emerged – positivism. As the term suggests, it describes a positive and enthusiastic approach to science (although the term itself refers to the fact that only ‘positive’ evidence should be accepted, therefore metaphysics and theism are not relevant). Its leading idea is that science is the only way for humanity to understand and consequently manage nature.
These movements became particularly strong in the late 18th century, with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. With the gradual decline of religiosity in the West and the emergence of modern evolutionary theories such as Darwinism, science has positioned itself as the answer to human questions and problems. This is what we can call scientism.
But does science have all the answers? Even if it is undeniable that science, in many of its forms (physics, biology, chemistry, geology…), has managed to provide a previously unseen level of comfort, health, wealth, understanding, and control over the environment for a part of humanity, can we truly say that we have become better human beings? As we enter what scientists call the Anthropocene, the age of humans, we can wonder if we have truly evolved in the last five hundred years.
Science often does not take into account the human factor. There are some sciences, or as some scientists would say, pseudosciences like psychology, that attempt to understand the complexity of the human mind and emotions. What I call the human factor, which in this case is the tendency of human beings to exploit the world around them for their own purposes, is often overlooked by science. The pursuit of personal profit has become a growing problem. In the past hundred years, we have witnessed greater destruction as technological power has increased. With the increase in power comes increased consequences, so humanity is being called upon to exercise greater responsibility and not use its newly acquired power in a destructive way.
That is why it is important for the scientific community to have some form of leadership, a sense of moral or ethical guidelines that religion once provided through a sense of the sacred and experience.
It is also important to understand what science is: a tool or key to understanding the world around us. However, more important than the tool is the hand that wields it – the human being. Humanity has many tools to help clarify and understand the natural world and ourselves, such as art, astronomy/astrology, mathematics, or religion, to name just a few. Debating which tool is the best means missing the point. But philosophy, as the search for wisdom, is the crucial support for the hand that holds the tool so that we can save ourselves from ourselves. Philosophy is not just an academic discipline, but it should become a guide that helps humanity use its tools in the most ethical way possible and hopefully, with time and experience, in a unifying, constructive, harmonious, and wise manner.