Benedetto Croce's Theory of Science

Benedetto Croce theorizes that natural sciences are de-fective sciences, because they always bump against facts that re-quire to be intuitively and historically understood, and because they set up concepts which are anything but natural. These concepts can be used only in order to organize the empirical material; therefore they are mere schemes, or pseudo-concepts, or conceptual fictions. These fictions are of great help in simplifying the physical reality and in stating relations within it; they have an instrumental character like a sort of necessary functions and practical acts. Their main fea-ture is the lack of universality; therefore they are just the opposite of pure concepts. Such logical theory does not involve a depreciation of natural sciences, which are rather viewed as a form of practical, economical knowing, like in the perspective of empiriocriticism (Avenarius, Mach) and conventionalism (Poincaré, Le Roy, Mi-lhaud). But, unlike all these philosophers, Croce distinguishes clear-ly between pure sensation and intuition, on the one hand, and pure concept, on the other hand. And he founds real knowledge only on pure concepts.