On Human Passion For Reductionism

"First of all the perceptual system cuts down this abundance or you couldn't survive." Religion, science, politics and philosophy represent our attempts to compress reality still further. Of course, these attempts to conquer abundance simply create new complexities. "Lots of people have been killed, in political wars. I mean, certain opinions are not liked." Feyerabend, I realized, was talking about the quest for The Answer, the secret to the riddle of reality.

But The Answer will forever remain beyond our grasp, according to Feyerabend. He ridiculed the belief of some scientists that they might someday reduce reality to a single theory. "Let them have their belief, if it gives them joy. Let them also give talks about that. 'We touch the infinite!' And some people say"--bored voice--"Ya ya, he says he touches the infinite.' And some people say"--thrilled voice--"'Ya ya! He says he touches the infinite!' But to tell the little children in school, 'Now that is what the truth is,' that is going much too far."

All descriptions of reality are inadequate, Feyerabend said. "You think that this one-day fly, this little bit of nothing, a human being--according to today's cosmology!--can figure it all out? This to me seems so crazy! It cannot possibly be true! What they figured out is one particular response to their actions, and this response gives this universe, and the reality that is behind this is laughing! 'Ha ha! They think they have found me out!'"

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Beneath Feyerabend's rhetorical antics lurked a deadly serious theme: the human compulsion to find absolute truths, however noble it may be, often culminates in tyranny. Feyerabend attacked science not because he actually believed it was no more valid than astrology or religion. Quite the contrary. He attacked science because he recognized--and was horrified by--science's vast superiority to other modes of knowledge. His objections to science were moral and political rather than epistemological. He feared that science, precisely because of its enormous power, could become a totalitarian force that crushes all its rivals.

- More here on Paul Feyerabend