There is a time and a place, or a context, for scientific thought. And there is concurrently a place for abstract casuistry.
From The New Criterion:
"When Levin comes to this realization, he understands that meaningfulness has always been there right before his eyes, hidden in plain view. Cloaked in its ordinariness, it is a daily miracle. 'And I watched for [material] miracles, complained that I did not see a miracle that would convince me,' Levin thinks. 'And here is the miracle, the sole miracle possible, continually existing, surrounding me on all sides, and I never noticed it!'”
"When cultures take the wrong path, they find it hard to change direction. Often enough, thinkers cannot imagine any alternative because their habits of thought are themselves the product of the chosen path. Of course, had their predecessors taken a different path, the alternative habits of thought that resulted would have proven just as resistant to change. Intellectual egoism predisposes people to believe that their prejudices are validated by History itself. In either case, what might have happened, but did not, remains in the shadows.
Nevertheless, cultures, no less than individuals, sometimes make choices that answer to their current needs but prove counterproductive later on. Then they require a sort of philosophical therapy. They need to become aware of their habits of thoughts and the circumstances that initially generated them. Only then could they go back to explore the road not taken."
The rest of the story
From The New Criterion:
"When Levin comes to this realization, he understands that meaningfulness has always been there right before his eyes, hidden in plain view. Cloaked in its ordinariness, it is a daily miracle. 'And I watched for [material] miracles, complained that I did not see a miracle that would convince me,' Levin thinks. 'And here is the miracle, the sole miracle possible, continually existing, surrounding me on all sides, and I never noticed it!'”
"When cultures take the wrong path, they find it hard to change direction. Often enough, thinkers cannot imagine any alternative because their habits of thought are themselves the product of the chosen path. Of course, had their predecessors taken a different path, the alternative habits of thought that resulted would have proven just as resistant to change. Intellectual egoism predisposes people to believe that their prejudices are validated by History itself. In either case, what might have happened, but did not, remains in the shadows.
Nevertheless, cultures, no less than individuals, sometimes make choices that answer to their current needs but prove counterproductive later on. Then they require a sort of philosophical therapy. They need to become aware of their habits of thoughts and the circumstances that initially generated them. Only then could they go back to explore the road not taken."
The rest of the story
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