Aldous Huxley is no friend of Protestantism. But this quote is a very limpid statement of a fact that it is sometimes hard to get populist "evidence-based" types to acknowledge. After saying that if Behaviorism is true it is probable that Behaviorism is untrue he goes on to add:
Quote:
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All science is based upon an act of faith―faith in the validity of the mind's logical processes, faith in the ultimate explicability of the world, faith that the laws of thought are laws of things. In practice, I repeat, if not always in theory, such conceptions are fundamental to all scientific activity. For the rest, scientists are opportunists. They will pass from a common-sense view of the world to advanced idealist theories, making use of one or the other according to the field of study in which they are at work. Unfortunately, few scientists in these days of specialization are ever called upon to work in more than one small field of study. Hence here is a tendency on the part of individual specialists to accept as true particular theories which are in fact only temporarily convenient. It is highly unfortunate that so few scientists are ever taught anything about the metaphysical foundations of science.
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-Aldous Huxley,
Complete Essays, Volume IV: 1936-1938, "Beliefs" (originally printed in
Ends and Means)
And of course, since all science is based upon faith in the validity of the mind's logical processes and the ultimate explicability of the world, it can never demonstrate any conclusion that undercuts that faith.