RT Article
T1 Science and Transcendence: Westphal, Derrida, and Responsibility
JF Zygon
VO 47
IS 1
SP 118
OP 139
A1 Kowalsky, Nathan
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2012
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1827963093
AB Abstract. On the naive reading, “radical social constructivism” would be the result of “deconstructing” science. Science would simply be a contingent construction in accordance with social determinants. However, postmodernism does not necessarily abandon fidelity to the objects of thought. Merold Westphal's Derridean philosophy of religion emphasizes that even theology need not eliminate the transcendence of the divine other. By drawing an analogy between natural and supernatural transcendence, I argue that science is similarly called to responsibility in the encounter with that which lies outside its horizon of expectation. Science's rational autonomy is overcome by the heteronomy of realities that precede it. Understanding species as homeostatic property clusters is an example of nonessentialist, postmodern, and scientific realism. Science is still a vehicle for encountering natural alterity, thus decentering the relativism thought to characterize postmodernism. However, natural science must not attempt to place the whole of being at human disposal if it is to fulfill the potential of Westphal's philosophy of religion.
K1 Merold Westphal
K1 Transcendence
K1 Social Construction
K1 philosophy of science
K1 Metaphysics
K1 homeostatic property clusters
K1 Heteronomy
K1 Hermeneutics
K1 Jacques Derrida
K1 Deconstruction
DO 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2011.01242.x