''The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason'' is a 1952 book by
Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...
economist
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
, in which the author asserts to address the problem of
scientism
Scientism is the opinion that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality.
While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientis ...
in the
social sciences
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...
, asserting that researchers and reporters attempt to apply the methods and claims of objective certainty from
hard science
Hard science and soft science are colloquial terms used to compare scientific fields on the basis of perceived methodological rigor, exactitude, and objectivity. Roughly speaking, the formal sciences & natural sciences are considered "hard", wher ...
.
Synopsis
This book is divided into three parts. The first is a reworking of Hayek's essay, "Scientism and the Study of Society". The second is an analysis of the doctrine of
Saint-Simon. Hayek lifts the title of the compiled book, The Counter-Revolution of Science, from Saint-Simon, who essentially asserted that the relative freedom of expression and thought of the Revolution in France was no longer necessary, that using the force of law to impose "scientific" conclusions on everyone was now necessary. The last segment examines
Comte
''Comte'' is the French, Catalan and Occitan form of the word 'count' (Latin: ''comes''); ''comté'' is the Gallo-Romance form of the word 'county' (Latin: ''comitatus'').
Comte or Comté may refer to:
* A count in French, from Latin ''comes''
* A ...
and
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
, and their similar takes on the
philosophy of history
Philosophy of history is the philosophical study of history and its discipline. The term was coined by French philosopher Voltaire.
In contemporary philosophy a distinction has developed between ''speculative'' philosophy of history and ''crit ...
. The first two sections were both originally published in the peer-reviewed magazine ''
Economica
''Economica'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of generalist economics published on behalf of the London School of Economics by Wiley-Blackwell. Established in 1921, it is currently edited by Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera, Tim Besley, Francesco ...
'', in the early 1940s.
Hayek observes that the hard sciences attempt to remove the "human factor" in order to obtain objective, strictly controlled results:
Meanwhile, the soft sciences are attempting to measure human action itself:
He notes that these are mutually exclusive:
Social science
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...
s should not attempt to impose
positivist methodology, nor to claim objective or definite results:
Publishing history
Parts of this book were published in ''Economica'' Magazine in the early 1940s. The book itself was compiled and printed in 1952. It eventually fell out of print, but was re-published in the US in 1980, and remained available since.
Reception
Czech
Neo-Marxist
Neo-Marxism is a Marxist school of thought encompassing 20th-century approaches that amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory, psychoanalysis, or exi ...
Karel Kosík
Karel Kosík (26 June 1926 – 21 February 2003) was a Czechs, Czech Marxist philosopher. In his most famous philosophical work, ''Dialectics of the Concrete'' (1963), Kosík presents an original reinterpretation of the ideas of Karl Marx in light ...
in his book ''Dialectics of the Concrete'' (1976) criticizes the following passage of the book: "The object of scientific inquiry is never the totality of all observable phenomena in a given time and space, but always only certain aspects of it ... The human spirit can never encompass the 'whole' in the sense of all different aspects of the real situation". Kosík believes Hayek wrote it in a polemic against Marxist concept of totality, and clarifies that, "Totality indeed does not signify ''all facts''. Totality signifies reality as structured dialectical whole, within which ''any particular'' fact (or any group or set of facts) can be rationally comprehended" as "the cognition of a fact or of a set of facts is the cognition of their place in the totality of reality." He considers Hayek's theory to be part of the
atomist
Atomism (from Greek , ''atomon'', i.e. "uncuttable, indivisible") is a natural philosophy proposing that the physical universe is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms.
References to the concept of atomism and its atoms a ...
–
rationalist philosophical thinking of reality, declaring "Opinions as to whether cognition of all facts is knowable or not are based on the rationalist–empiricist idea that cognition proceeds by the analytic–summative method. This idea is in turn based on the atomist idea of reality as a sum of things, processes and facts". Kosík claims that Hayek and those philosophers (including
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...
on ''
The Poverty of Historicism
''The Poverty of Historicism'' is a 1944 book by the philosopher Karl Popper (revised in 1957), in which the author argues that the idea of historicism is dangerous and bankrupt.
Publication
''The Poverty of Historicism'' was first written as a ...
'' and
Ferdinand Gonseth
Ferdinand Gonseth (1890–1975) was a Swiss mathematician and philosopher.
He was born on 22 September 1890 at Sonvilier, the son of Ferdinand Gonseth, a clockmaker, and his wife Marie Bourquin. He studied at La Chaux-de-Fonds, and read physics a ...
of ''
Dialectica
''Dialectica'' is a quarterly philosophy journal published by Blackwell between 2004 and 2019. As of 2020, Dialectica is published in full open access. The journal was founded in 1947 by Gaston Bachelard, Paul Bernays and Ferdinand Gonseth. ...
'') lack the understanding of the
dialectical process of forming the totality.
American philosopher
Susan Haack
Susan Haack (born 1945) is a distinguished professor in the humanities, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, professor of philosophy, and professor of law at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.
Haack has written on logic, ...
references Hayek's book several times in her 2009 essay "Six Signs of Scientism".
[Susan Haack]
"Six Signs of Scientism".
/ref>
References
Notes
Books
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External links
* Full text i
PDF
an
plain text
formats.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Counter-Revolution of Science
1952 non-fiction books
American non-fiction books
Books by Friedrich Hayek
Classical liberalism
Criticisms of economics
English-language books