#natural-science

[colingorrie]

Each of us, individually and as a member of particular social groups, seeks to embody his own plans and projects in the natural and social world. A condition of achieving this is to render much of our natural and social environment as possible predictable and the importance of both natural and social science in our lives derives in part...from their contribution to this project.

MacIntyre, Alasdair (1981/2007). After Virtue, 3rd ed. Notre Dame IN, University of Notre Dame Press: 104.

[colingorrie]

[The third source of predictability in social life] is the knowledge of the causal regularities of nature: snowstorms, earthquakes, plague bacilli, height, malnutrition, and the properties of protein all place constraints on human possibility.

MacIntyre, Alasdair (1981/2007). After Virtue, 3rd ed. Notre Dame IN, University of Notre Dame Press: 103.