Scientism

Abstract

Musil’s novel The Man Without Qualities (1995a) starts in this way:

A barometric low hung over the Atlantic. It moved toward a high-pressure area over Russia without as yet showing any inclination to bypass this high in a northerly direction. The isotherms and isotheres were functioning as they should. The air temperature was appropriate relative to the annual mean temperature and to the aperiodic monthly fluctuations of the temperature …. The water vapour in the air was at its maximal state of tension, while the humidity was minimal. In a word that characterises the facts fairly accurately, even if a bit old-fashioned: It was a fine day in August 1913.