The letter of Professor John U. Nef in the first number of Diogenes cites, en passant, a formula concerning the seventeenth century that has become traditional among modern critics of the present position of science in our intellectual outlook. In the perspective of what has happened since, it is now easy to speak of the scientist's emphasis on quantity destroying the understanding of quality and values, which in turn have been relegated to the sphere of personal intuition, intangible and therefore beyond the realm of rational and objective discussion.