[GLDNGUN]

And the difference between an idea representing objective reality well, and an idea working, is..... ? To put it another way, how can ideas that don't represent reality work? You seem to be saying that even though science makes successful predictions and fails falsifications (the definition of "working" that scientists go with) it might be coming up with answers that are wrong and don't accurately represent reality. Presumably you have a better alternative. What is your proposed method for coming up with answers that are "right" as opposed to "useful"? How can we tell the difference?

Good questions. You'll have to ask someone who believes that ideas "are nothing but tools that have evolved to help us control and manipulate the environment."

[Thatcherite]

Good questions. You'll have to ask someone who believes that ideas "are nothing but tools that have evolved to help us control and manipulate the environment."

Nice try at sliding out. You appear to think that science is failing in its "duty" to provide truth, in the quest for "usefulness". (Either that or the entire screed you posted was a wordy irrelevance). So please explain how we should try and identify what is true, rather than what is useful. Science pursues what is useful on the assumption that "truth" and "usefulness" amount to the same thing. If that assumption is wrong explain the better methodology that would arrive at truth, rather than usefulness.