Inter-Esse

Kierkegaard tem uma série de notas, em seus Papirer, sobre as Ciências Naturais. Destacam-se ali dois tipos de críticas: que elas podem ser potencialmente nocivas e degenerativas para as mais profundas atividades do espírito e, em segundo lugar, que a ciência não passa de sofística. Reproduzo abaixo duas deliciosas entradas:

“If the natural sciences had been as developed in Socrates’ time as they are now, all the Sophists would have become natural scientists. One would have hung a microscope outside his shop to attract customers; another would have had a sign reading: Look through our giant microscope and see how a man thinks;* another: See how the grass grows. Excellent motifs for an Aristophanes, especially if he has Socrates present and has him peer into a microscope.”

Pap. VII1 A 194 n.d., 1846

“Of all scholarship, the natural sciences are the most banal. It has always amused me to reflect on how year after year that which once aroused amazement becomes commonplace, for this is always the fate of discoveries within the sphere of the bad infinity. What a sensation the stethoscope made! It will soon come to the point that every barber does it, and when he has finished shaving you he will ask: Would you also like to be stethoscoped? Someone will invent an instrument to listen to the heart beat. It will create a great sensation until after 50 years every barber will be able to do it. Then after one has had a haircut and been stethoscoped (by this time it will be quite common) the barber will ask: Would you also like to have me listen to your heartbeat?”

Pap. VII1 A 189 n.d., 1846