Do the sciences (or more generally ourselves) need philosophy at the present time? A search for coherence among fragmentation and disorder.

Each science organizes its own knowledge partially in frames, sometimes as a whole, which are incompatible with the pictures proposed by other sciences…. One could say that this is a necessary sacrifice for scientific progress. Yet this fragmentation of knowledge is not an accident without casualties. Its larger consequence is an historically unprecedented form of irrationality. A world submerged in specialized knowledge, and in bits of unrelated information, produces a profound and diffuse cognitive disorientation. The paradoxical result is that in a world apparently dominated by scientific paradigms, the arena for incoherent prejudices, urban legends, sectarian beliefs, and stubborn dogmas is greater than ever.

Andrea Zhok, “Wanted: Philosopher in a Time of Chaos [Filosofo cercasi nell’era di caos]”, L’Espresso, 18 June 2017.