Perhaps ultimate answers cannot be gotten from Reason. But the moment we say that, the entire course of Western science, and maybe Western civilization itself, is DEAD.
Why do you say that? Western science has never been about finding "ultimate answers" to anything. Western science has been about finding specific answers to specific questions, in a fashion that is understandable and reproduceable.
You are simply projecting your own theistic/philosophic assumptions about what kinds of questions should be asked, and then condemning Western science because it fails to ask them.
You might as well condemn your car because it doesn't let you drive to heaven, or condemn your telephone because it doesn't let you talk to God. That's not what those things were designed for, but like Western science you must condemn them for being what they are, instead of what you want them to be.
Look, VBWC, as long as science is interested in investigating what is true about our universe, it will (inevitably) be dragged, kicking and screaming if need be, into where the problems LEAD.
I don't have to sit here and referee this enterprise; it's not being conducted for my personal benefit, and it must follow its own logic in any case. I am perfectly content with this process, just so long as it's "honest." (Which, IMHO, is where Lewontin et al. fall down.... FWIW)
That being the case, I can just sit here and take it all in -- as an interested observer, and be grateful for, and thrilled by the real "breakthroughs" that occur from time to time.
Fact is, to my mind: It is the essential nature of Truth to draw the mind (and spirit) of man. It doesn't need any help from me in terms of steering the relevant questions.
But assuredly I feel personally grateful for creative acts of human genius, wherever they are to be found. And appreciated for the liberating effects they bring in their train. If you think that the course of Western science has been prosecuted entirely in the interest of, in thrall to utility, you don't understand your own historical culture.
On such a view, you thereby relegate some of the greatest minds of mankind to the status of mere servants of materialism and utilitarianism. I don't think that's quite what Newton, or Einstein (just to name two of the truly great) quite had in mind, in terms of their own personal motivation for doing science.
If I'm "wrong" about this, then please explain: How, and Why?