Abstract
In this essay it is argued that there may be three places for science’s “legitimacy crisis”: the celestial world to which the writings of such authors as José Ortega y Gasset, Karl Jaspers, Johan Huizinga and Edmund Husserl lead us, the Dantesque world to which the writings of science philosopher Paul Feyerabend lead us, and the world of earthly reality to which the writings of scientists who react to a situation of open hostility to science lead us. In the latter, the term “crisis” does not express a personal disillusionment with science (as in the case of Ortega y Gasset, Jaspers, and Huizinga), nor the idiosyncrasies of a philosophical system (as in the case of Husserl), nor the dreadful consequences of a well-intentioned libertarian utopia (as in the case of Feyerabend), but a redefinition of the paths to be taken by different scientific disciplines, something that happened only once, in the Germany of the Weimar Republic, strictly speaking, the only place where what could properly be called “crisis of the legitimacy of science” has already existed.
Keywords:
Crisis of science; Libertarian utopia; Weimar republic; History of science