For existentialists like Sartre and Camus, life is analogous to that classic children's song "My Grandfather's Clock," which tells the story of a grandfather who was given a clock at birth that "stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died." Life ticks and ticks, and once the man (the clock) died, all chances of affecting change on the world were lost. But by coming to this bleak realization, Sartre and Camus attempted to overcome their situations by projecting their wills forward, beyond their time and place, through their uses of language. For the existentialists, truth is created, and therefore they are inclined to believe that if one can control language, he can control the world. For this reason, existential philosophers find repugnant the idea put forth by scientific psychologists and sociobiologists, claiming theirs is just one more vocabulary, one more linguistic tradition. The scientific method may just be one of many useful tools for surviving in the world. Psychologists like Skinner, and biologists like Darwin and Wilson agree, with Plato, that the truth is "out there" and if we devise the proper tools we can "reach it," the scientific method being one of those tools. The critique by the existentialists of the scientific psychologists and sociobiologists is that they are dumb metaphysicians, as they are obsessed reaching the Truth which they see as attainable. Sartre and Camus would be more comfortable acknowledging the utility of scientific method, but allowing that other explanations may exist or have yet to be found.
People who talk about capital T "Truth" are also likely to be making claims like "Truth is good," and "goodness will prevail." From the standpoint of the Dariwinian, these notions appear to be reflected by and supportive of the process of evolution; the survival of the fittest reflects an "ultimate" reality about the earth and its biological processes. But this same line...