Science and the Ideals of Humanism

The author discusses the question Ilya Kasavin formulated about the correspondence of the values of scientific knowledge and the ideals of humanism. She shows that the connection between the values of scientific knowledge and the ideals of humanism was laid during the Enlightenment. The ontological concepts of the unity and order of nature are transferred to the concepts of methodology of knowledge, the knowing subject, and society as a whole. From here follows the interpretation of progress as a linear movement towards cognitive unity and social harmony, which are recognized as public goods. Science today no longer promises to bring multiple experiences and multiple subjective individual and collective points of view into a unity that expresses the intelligible and simple order of nature, on the one hand, and the order of society, on the other. On the contrary, today's scientists, philosophers, and social theorists say that the further science advances, the more cognitive and social diversity we acquire. The article analyzes the conditions for the possibility of interpreting cognitive diversity as a public good. It is shown that with the belief in progress shaken in the postmodern era, the values of scientific knowledge and humanism retain interconnection and social significance. The transformation that they, nevertheless, undergo, consists in a shift in emphasis from the results of knowledge to the process of knowledge.

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