GOD AND SCIENCE Maritain, Jacques
On the Use of Philosophy,
12/2015
Book Chapter
In the realm of culture, science now holds sway over human civilization. But at the same time science has, in the realm of the mind, entered a period of deep and fecund trouble and self-examination. ...Scientists have to face the problems of over-specialization, and a general condition of permanent crisis which stems from an extraordinarily fast swarming of discoveries and theoretical renewals, and perhaps from the very approach peculiar to modern science. They have, in general, got rid of the idea that it is up to science to organize human life and society and to supersede ethics and religion by
A philosopher is a man in search of wisdom. Wisdom does not indeed seem to be an exceedingly widespread commodity; there has never been overproduction in this field. The greater the scarcity of what ...the philosopher is supposed to be concerned with, the more we feel inclined to think that society needs the philosopher badly.
Unfortunately there is no such thing asthephilosopher; this dignified abstraction exists only in our minds. There are philosophers; and philosophers, as soon as they philosophize, are, or seem to be, in disagreement on everything, even on the first principles of philosophy. Each one
Oliberty, how many crimes are committed in thy name!” Madame Roland said, mounting the scaffold. O Truth, it may be said, how often blind violence and oppression have been let loose in thy name in ...the course of history! “Zeal for truth,” as Father Victor White puts it, “has too often been a cloak for the most evil and revolting of human passions.”¹
As a result, some people think that in order to set human existence free from these evil passions, and make men live in peace and pleasant quiet, the best way is to get rid of any zeal
