“Science in a Skeptical Age,” Monthly Review, vol. 50, no. 2 (June 1998), pp. 39-52.
Review of; Science and the Retreat From Reason by John Gillott and Manjit Kumar.
DOI: 10.14452/MR-050-02-1998-06_4
We live in a skeptical age. All of the basic concepts of the Enlightenment, including progress, science and reason are now under attack. At the center of this skepticism lie persistent doubts about science itself, emanating both from within and from without the scientific community. Recent titles by scientists give an idea of the extent of the crisis in confidence within science: Science: The End of the Frontier? (1991) by Nobel prize winner Leon Lederman; The End of Certainty (1996) by Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine; and The End of Science (1996) by Scientific American writer John Horgan.