Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
6
P
ositivism
in
the
w
oRlD
of
t
homas
h
uxley
This increasing consolidation and prevalence of the scientific spirit represents the
dominant form of modern consciousness whether we regard it in its theoretical con-
figurations or in its popular or commonsense forms. Viewed historically, it represents
the ultimate realization of the spirit of modern positivism, which in turn is closely
related to the spirit of capitalism.
Once successfully established on such a basis and elaborated along such lines,
modern philosophy and the social sciences tended increasingly to cut themselves loose
from history in general and from their immediate roots in the nineteenth century in
particular.
—Gertrud Lenzer
What Lenzer offers here is a summation of the general pattern I have been
trying to outline in my discussion of positivism. But my own interpretation
of her observation that philosophy and the social sciences have tended to
cut themselves off from history is somewhat different. I would characterize
the declining historical awareness of those most influenced by positivism
as a development reflecting the sublimation of history
into
science—more
specifically, into natural history. Having staked my position on the theoreti-
cal insights of Northrop Frye and Hayden White regarding the transmut-
ability of historical conceptions, I judge that the scientific “consolidation”
referenced by Lenzer involved the transference of historical meaning into
nature. In positivism, the scientific justification that Bacon had drawn from
a traditional historical narrative and which was then displaced into secular
history in the Enlightenment was beginning to be transposed once again
onto evolutionary history. History was not yet being represented as biologi-
cal evolution; the positivists had only created a social evolutionary picture.
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