Science and the Myth of Progress

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This slideshow focuses on the content of the book Science and the Myth of Progress (World Wisdom, 2003), edited by Mehrdad M. Zarandi. The slides hightlight one or a few of the central ideas found in the essays. The titles of most slides correspond to the titles of the respective essays.

The essays in the book, as well as the Preface and Foreword, take a critical look at modern science from viewpoints as varied as the metaphysical and the traditional scientific. The authors write with authority and state the truth without compromise.

In his Foreword, Giovanni Monastra alerts the reader to the reductionism associated with the modern scientific paradigm:

Modern science has reduced the qualitative aspects of nature to quantitative modalities to better manipulate and dominate matter, following the old program of Francis Bacon.

The purpose of this “reign of quantity”—to use the Guénonian expression, is power and domination:

…Science is more and more becoming a “techno-science”, where even the simple, practical knowledge of daily life is gradually being replaced by a profane lust for power over nature.…

Monastra cites “hyperspecialization”, and a “horizontal dispersion” as hallmarks of modern science and contrasts the modern physician with the traditional “medicine man” to illustrate his point:

Today the physician is an engineer of human health, a superficial specialist who has invested years in acquiring the professional blinkers which allow him to see only the part… and not the whole. This is a sharp contrast to the ‘medicine man’ found in traditional communities who follows a holistic approach to healing.

The essays that follow give us a “holistic” view of modern science, one which reveals its strong tendencies to greed, intolerance of other viewpoints, dishonesty, and danger.