modern science

is notable in that progress is owed in great part to the work of men astoundingly mediocre men. As the root and symbol of our civilization, science finds a place for the intellectually commonplace man and allows him to work therein with success.

[I]t is necessary to insist upon this extraordinary but undeniable fact: experimental science has progressed thanks in great part to the work of men astoundingly mediocre, and even less than mediocre. That is to say, modern science, the root and symbol of our actual civilization, finds a place for the intellectually commonplace man and allows him to work therein with success. Jose Ortega y Gasset

is grounded in a logic of probability and thus can never directly talk about reality, only about data.

If you think this is outrageous or bizarre, remember that this is just exactly the logic of modern science. It’s why global warming scientists are constrained to broadcasting a percentage concerning the likelihood that humans caused it. It allows us to study things with great precision, unhampered by metaphysical baggage. But it also means that science can never directly talk about reality, only about data.

is an exaltation of human rationality to a degree never before conceived.

For all its seeming dethronement of the importance of ‘man’, with, for example, the removal of the earth from the centre of the universe, or the humiliation of Darwin’s theory of evolution, modern science at heart exalts human rationality to a degree never before conceived.

modern science, n.All

modern science