Jeepers, A-G -- ain't that the truth!
You cited A. N. Whitehead: "... scientific materialism is so reduced that it cannot help but produce results whereupon the investigators pronounce their reduced view is correct because it is successful." [Itals added]
Which just begs the question: What is success? And I guess the answer to that question depends on who you ask. On the one hand, the pure theorists pursue the "open path" for the sheer love of adventure, of discovery, of the sense of being somehow married to the quest of truth. On the other, science is so brilliant in its achievements, that there are excellent scientists who think we ought to be satisfied with deriving useful, reliable "engineering solutions" to "human problems" -- which at least has the obvious benefit of practicality and utility going for it.
But it seems to me utilitarian solutions to human problems do not and can not reach to the essential problems of the human soul which, in combinatorial fashion, make the person; and the person in turn, "writ in larger letters," makes the family, the community, society, the nation, and in the final analysis the human race.
FWIW, it seems to me that science cannot provide solutions to human problems other than the "material" or physical ones. And even those to a shockingly limited degree as it turns out. (If anyone doubts this, just consider e.g., the high human poverty, morbidity, and mortality rates that persist in large parts of the world to this day. Etc.)
For the stark fact is: Science cannot defeat mortality. It cannot "cure" death. And it cannot make man "good."
All the same, man is more than his body, in the same way that the Universe is more than its material substance. JMHO FWIW.
Thanks ever so much for writing, dear Alamo-Girl!
I didn't notice this posted earlier. Not looking to debate, but for the record, I consider all three premises as quite false. In fact, the first two should be well on their way to achievement within the next century (a couple centuries at most) and the third as well within this next millennium.
Utilitarian solutions do not reach to the problems of the human soul, but I appreciate them very much all the same. There is room for all of us, it seems. A scientist will work out the calcs that the engineer will use to design the stuff that another guy will build that we all will use.
The ultimate "why" and "wherefor" usually doesn't get addressed during the workday of any of us, except in the quiet times, since most of us have our hands full with the needs of the moment and those quiet times are few and far between.
The pure theorist you refer to is another breed. The guy who spends his time staring into the dark at the edge of the camp isn't always respected by the people who tend the campfires, but there is room for a few of these guys, and even a crying need for them, but its not work everyone is capable of. You can be a mediocre scientist, or engineer, or plumber, and still do valuable work. The mediocre visionary isn't much use to anyone.
Some people are simply drawn to it, they can't help themselves. Its pointless to complain that there aren't more of them.