Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The World of Perception - Timothy R. Quigley

provide all the answers at a time when it had still to come intobeing. The question which modern philosophy asks in relationto science is not intended either to contest its right to exist orto close off any particular avenue to its inquiries. Rather, thequestion is whether science does, or ever could, present us witha picture of the world which is complete, self-sufficient andsomehow closed in upon itself, such that there could no longerbe any meaningful questions outside this picture. It is not amatter of denying or limiting the extent of scientific knowledge,but rather of establishing whether it is entitled to deny orrule out as illusory all forms of inquiry that do not start outfrom measurements and comparisons and, by connecting particularcauses with particular consequences, end up with lawssuch as those of classical physics. This question is asked notout of hostility to science. Far from it: in fact, it is scienceitself – particularly in its most recent developments – whichforces us to ask this question and which encourages us toanswer in the negative.Since the end of the nineteenth century, scientists have gotused to the idea that their laws and theories do not provide aperfect image of Nature but must rather be considered eversimpler schematic representations of natural events, destinedto be honed by increasingly minute investigations; or, in otherwords, these laws and theories constitute knowledge by43