1793.Isn't There

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Isn't there an important distinction to be made between being a form of critical reflection, on the one hand, and being a science (even in the broad sense of the word), on the other? In other words, a particular science is to a particular form of critical reflection as the professional way of pursuing a particular theoretical question deliberately, methodically, and reasonedly is to the lay way of pursuing the same theoretical question also deliberately, methodically, and reasonedly. The above answer to the question won't do. There is no good reason to deny, as it by implication does, that a science, properly, can be

The real key to the wanted distinction is the one suggested bypun~d at the lay level as well as professionally. nly entry, Notebooks, 3 October 2002; rev. 28 November 2005. I argue there that merely being a 111atter of critical reflection, although a necessary condition of being a science, is not a sufficient condition, because also necessary is that the question constitutive of a science be an intellectual question about structure ill itself as distinct from an existential question about 1Il(,{lIlingjor liS. 17 May2009 The above answer to the question won't do. There is no good reason to deny, as it by implication does, that a science, properly, can be pursed at the lay level as well as professionally.

The real key to the wanted distinction is the one suggested by my entry, Notebooks, 3 October 2002; rev. 28 November 2005. I argue there that merely being a Inatter of criticaJ reflection, although a necessary condition of being a science, is not a sufficient condition, because also necessary is that the question constitutive of a science be an intel1ectuaJ question aboutstrllctllre ill itself, as d isti net from an existential question about 1I1l'l1llillg for liS. 17 May 2009

Yes, I believe there is. And I further incline to think that it is either one and the same with, or somehow very closely related to, the other distinction that I have long drawn between "lay" and "professional" with respect to the secondary activity of critical reflection and proper theory as well as the primary level of self-understanding and life-praxis.

22 January 1998