Beginning ~ with scientistic stuff

On the Logic of the Social Sciences ~ by Jürgen Habermas, 1970, translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen and Jerry A. Stark, 1988, social philosophy, 220 pages

Oh, dear!  I told you back in January that I was ordering the shortest of three books by Jürgen Habermas.  That would be this one.  I also wrote:  "His theory of communicative action rests on the idea that social order ultimately depends on the capacity of actors to recognize the intersubjective validity of the different claims on which social cooperation depends."

Okay, so I knew it wouldn't be an easy book to "study," but I did not expect a beginning like this that seems incomprehensible to me:

The once lively discussion initiated by Neo-Kantianism concerning the methodological distinctions between natural-scientific and social-scientific inquiry has been forgotten; the problems that gave rise to it no longer seem to be of contemporary relevance.  Scientistic consciousness obscures fundamental and persistent differences in the methodological approaches of the sciences.

Scientistic?  No, I did NOT misspell that word.  I looked up the meaning of "scientistic" and found this definition:

1. characterized by or having an exaggerated belief in the principles and methods of science.
2. of, pertaining to, or characterized by scientism.

So now I need the definition of scientism:

1. thought or expression regarded as characteristic of scientists.
2. excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques.

Equally bad is that the first paragraph of this book takes up the whole first page, except for three lines of the second paragraph.  I may not make it past page two!

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.