Scientific Progress

Abstract

Science is often distinguished from other human enterprises by its progressive nature. Science, it is said, has “a progressive and public character”1, and an essential feature of scientific knowledge is its “continued growth”2. Just like Kant who complained that metaphysics has not yet found “the sure path of science”3, so many philosophers have thought that science can be effectively demarcated from religion, art, philosophy and politics by reference to its method; this method is thought to be sufficient to guarantee continuous progress for science or at least to give clear criteria for recognizing ‘progressive’ developments within science.4