A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

irrational, and the emergence of a new kind of irrationalism--are problematic. The former is
problematic in that the irrational never really went away—it was simply dethroned. The latter is
problematic for more complex reasons, which I will now elaborate.
In telling the story of rationalization, it is tempting to proceed, following the tendencies
of traditional historiography, both with the understanding that the positivist mode of science was
somehow pre-destined to triumph and with the misapprehension that it fully embodied the tenor
and tendency of scientific endeavor in the nineteenth century. Positivism or logical positivism is,
strictly speaking, native to the first half of the twentieth century and the work of the Vienna
Circle. 13
But the principles codified by logical positivism had long been operative. One
commonly accepted locus in the formation of these principles that dates back to the beginnings
of the previous century is the work of sociologist August Comte. Positivism at its heart is a
philosophy of science that dictates certain standards of evidence. In a positivist framework, the
data used to support a theory must be verifiable and/or falsifiable—ideally through direct
observation or experience. Evidence that fails such a standard is a priori inadmissible. Thus
matters of spirit, in that they are largely based on faith, intuition and other non-empirical
faculties, fall outside the realm of serious consideration. In the extreme case of what is
sometimes called verificationism statements concerning the empirically unverifiable would be
denied even the status of meaningful utterance. 14
With the aforementioned understanding that
positivism can somehow be equated with scientific practice in the nineteenth century, it is easy to
argue that a “new” sacred worldview arises (neo-enchantment) to meet the challenge of a system
of thought—positivism—that seeks to remove the sacred from any serious consideration.
13 Richard A. Fumerton, “Logical Positivism” in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, ed. Robert Audi
(Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1995) 445-446.
14 Gordon Marshall, “Vienna Circle” in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, ed. Gordon Marshall, (New
York: Oxford University, 1994) 556.
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