⇐ Development of the Will   Development of Feeling ⇒

A person may deal with the data of conscious activity on three levels: Science, Philosophy, and Theology.

Science

Science seeks to organize and determine the underlying laws behind the mass of factual information gleaned from the observation and experience of the external world and human life. The basic element of science is the fact.

Our empirical knowledge of the the physical world can never be complete. On the one hand, our senses are subject to illusions and on the other, there can never be complete certainty regarding scientific theories. They cannot be fully verified, yet are always open to being falsified. Our theories of the contingent events of the physical world are necessarily matters of opinion and hence no more than likely stories. A scientific theory is the most likely story.

However, of the three levels of knowledge, science is the easiest to master, hence, it has produced the most impressive results over the past several centuries. Science is universal in the sense that it is accessible to anyone with the proper preparation and ability to understand its mathematical models. There is no requirement for a personal transformation. That is why past assertions of an “Aryan science” or a “Jewish science” were misguided. Science is no respecter of persons.

This is also why science is accumulative. Each scientist can build on the work of previous scientists; there is no need to repeat all the earlier experiments once certain facts have been established. Science owes its success because it makes simplifying assumptions about the world. For example, Francis Bacon made the methodological assumption of science to bracket out the question of formal and final causes. Hence, the scientist can focus on physical things and the relationships among them. Their function or purpose are of no concern.

Scientists often make other methodological assumptions such as the anti-philosophies of materialism, atheism, or determinism. As such, there is no objection. However, scientists, in their one-sightedness, sometimes err in claiming that these assumptions are objectively true descriptions of the world.

Philosophy

Philosophy is the formal perfection of knowledge and its logical coherence. Its basic unit is the idea. Philosophy can only point out the necessary conditions for the genuine attainment of knowledge, but it does not provide its content. The content must come from the level below or above.

Science seeks to determine the relationships among things. The goal of philosophy is to know the Sufficient Reason, that is, the reason or cause for something to exist. Philosophy develops much more slowly than Science, because each generation of philosophers must recapitulate the thoughts of previous philosophers, a tedious and demanding process.

The potential errors of science are the possibility of delusion in the observations and the possibility of a theory being falsified. The potential error of philosophy comes from starting with false first principles. In that case, all deductions from such a principle will be logically false. Another potential error comes from the temptation of the sophists, the demon of dialectics; the sophist will use the tools of logic and the vocabulary of philosophy to make a case for a predetermined position, thus having only a subjective significance. A true philosopher must be disinterested in his search for first principles and sufficient reasons.

Theology

Theology is concerned with the universal or absolute content of knowledge. Science is concerned with particular beings, philosophy with the form of knowledge, and theology with absolute being.

Unlike Science, the truths of Theology are independent of external reality. Unlike Philosophy, the truths of Theology are above Reason. Its subject matter is the absolute first principle of all of existence. Solovyov concludes:

Only this principle imparts genuine meaning and significance both to

• The concepts of Philosophy
• The facts of Science

Without this:

• The concepts of Philosophy becomes meaningless form
• The facts of Science become undifferentiated matter

Thus we see that genuine knowledge is knowledge of the Whole, or the One in Neoplatonic terms, or the Absolute, the Infinite, or the Tao. This form of knowledge is Gnosis and is superior to Reason.

⇐ Development of the Will   Development of Feeling ⇒