Henry Imler November 26th, 2006

[T]he methods of science cannot vindicate the ends of
science, and the knowledge acquired by scientific methods cannot always
justify the particular experiments used to acquire it. Yet scientists
desperately want such vindication in the eyes of their fellow citizens:
Good science (meaning interesting, promising, exciting) needs to be
seen as good (meaning virtuous, praiseworthy, compassionate) by
everyone. And so scientists have invented a new method to defend the
unfettered freedom of the old one: They claim the mantle of science
while making ethical claims (”embryo research is good”) that rest on no
special scientific basis at all, and they portray their opponents as
antiscience for raising ethical questions that are entirely consistent
with the scientific facts (”embryological development begins at
conception”).

- Eric Cohen, “The Ends of Science,” First Things [November 2006]: 27-33, at 27 [italics in original]

First heard at AnalPhilosopher :: Eric Cohen on Scientism

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