That's part of the problem. Scientism has been gaining ground
and running over Philosophy and Theology Departments for many
many decades now, certainly since the start of Logical
Positivism.
Logical Positivism grabbed a strong foothold in the USA as the
Pragmatist movement fed into American sense via the Scottish
Common Sense Realism influence..
It sounds like I'm framing it as a conspiracy and I'm not - it's
just history; the effectiveness of Engineering in the early part
of the 20th century, and the flip that occurred in the 1950s
when the Pure Sciences got a boost by Engineering being
redefined as "Applied Science" marked a big step in this
direction and it was necessary in order for the pure sciences to
continue funding after WWII, when Pure Research (the R in R & D)
was losing ground in popularity.
Yet, conceptually, Pure Science (Theory) was once the realm of
monastics. It's not hard to relate the many Theologians
monastics who struggled over, "How many angels fit on the head
of a pin?" to Universities and Government grants pouring
millions for students and institutions in solving String Theory
utilizing Mathematics.
Not so different at all. Both pressing questions that ultimately
are just fodder for the imagination. Not that there's anything
wrong that fodder for the imagination, but the American
Pragmatist in me says, "Oh, Puleeze" sometimes.
