Science and the Humanities Much of modern science can be characterized as the slow but steady recognition that human beings do not occupy a uniquely...

Science and the Humanities

Much of modern science can be characterized as the slow but steady recognition that human beings do not occupy a uniquely privileged position in the natural world. Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler showed that the Earth is not the center of the universe. Sir Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle identified natural processes that generate natural phenomena without regard for human concerns. And Charles Darwin established that our very existence as a species is the result of an ongoing process that began long before our appearance, and will continue long after we are gone.

What has this progressive displacement of any claim to human centrality or superiority done for our sense of the meaning of our lives and culture? How can the humanities interpret human significance in the face of such facts?

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