ilya_prigogine_isabelle_stengers_alvin_tofflerbookfi-org

39
THE TRIUMPH OF REASON
mythicaI form of inquiry, is thus the emphasis on criticaI discussion
and verification.14
Little is known about this pre-Socratic philosophy that grew
up in the lonian cities and the colonies of Magna Graecia.
Thus we can only speculate about the relationships that might
have existed between the development of theoretical and cosmological
hypotheses and the crafts and technological activities
that tlourished in those cities. Tr adition teUs that as a
result of a hostile religious and social reaction, philosophers
were accused of atheism and were either exiled or put to death.
This early "recall to order" may serve as a symbol of the importance
of social factors in the origin, and above alI the
growth, of conceptual innovations. To understand the success
of modem science we also have to explain why its fóunders
were as a rule not unduly persecuted and their theoretical approach
repressed in favor of a form of knowledge more consistent
with social anticipations and convictions.
Be that as it may, from Plato and Aristotle onward, the limits
were set, and thought was channeled in socially acceptable
directions. ln particular, the distinction between theoretical
thinking and technological activity was established. The
words we still use today-machine, mechanical, engineerhave
a similar meaning. They do not refer to rational knowledge
but to cunning and expediency. The idea was not to leam
about natural processes in order to utilize them more effectively,
but to deceive nature, to "machinate" against it-that
is, to work wonders and create effects extraneous to the "natural
order" of things. The fields of practical manipulation and
that of the rational understanding of nature were thus rigidly
separated. Archimedes' status is merely that of an engineer;
his mathematical analysis of the equilibrium of machines is not
considered to be applicable to the world of nature, at least
within the framework of traditional physics. ln contrast, the
Newtonian synthesis expresses a systematic alliance between
manipulation and theoretical understanding.
There is a third important element that found its expression
in the Newtonian revolution. There is a striking contrast,
which each of us has probably experienced, between the quiet
world of the stars and planets and thé ephemeral, turbulent
world around uso As Mircea Eliade has emphasized, in many