Restoring Science and the Rule of Law

Science and the rule of law are the two pillars of modernity. Even though both result from the attempt to employ reason to limit the exercise of power in the scientific and the political sphere, they bear in themselves the germs of their own destruction: scientism and welfare totalitarianism. This book examines a trend towards a new, specifically postmodern totalitarianism, namely a regime of “actually existing postmodernism” that is based on the collusion of four elements: (i) scientism and its political use, (ii) intellectual postmodernism, (iii) welfare states, and (iv) crony capitalism. The book then shows a way out by utilising the philosophy of Descartes and Kant, the social-normative turn in the 20th century, and the resources of Austrian libertarianism from Hayek and Popper to Mises, Rothbard and Hoppe. These intellectual resources lay the ground for a New Enlightenment and an open society shaped by a free science and voluntary cooperation under the rule of law. Restoring Science and the Rule of Law is essential reading for philosophers of science and for political theorists interested in the foundations of the rule of law. Michael Esfeld is a full professor of philosophy of science at the University of Lausanne. Cristian Lopez is a postdoctoral researcher in philosophy of science at the University of Lausanne.