Philosophy is not science.

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by spuriousmonkey, Oct 21, 2005.

  1. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

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    A bright young student at one of America's finest Universities claims filosophy is not a science and has nothing to do with science.

    I tried to explain to him that my PhD translates as a 'doctor in philosophy' and the science of biology used to be called 'natural philosophy'. And that there can be no such thing as science without philosophy. And that I actually had a PhD supervisor once who was a professor in the Philosophy of Science.

    He told me I got my PhD at walmart.

    Did I?

    Or did I actually receive my PhD with the highest possible grade?
     
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  3. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    he sounds like an arrogant twat

    what IS science. it is empirical way of attempting to understand reality. they write a language which can be understood bothe by a Chinese person and a Irish person etc....in thatits supposed to be mor exact than the usual anguage we use, which may be ambigous in meaning

    they then apply this language and then may see it corelates with the physical application of reality

    scientists--positivist scientists--like to believe they are objective, but surely they are also subjective and have philosophical presumptions which they use to interpreat whatevr reults they get.....what did Oppenheimer famously say when he saw the Atom bomb explore into a mushroom......again?
     
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  5. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    You are quite right. Science uses to be called "natural philosophy". Science is, and always will remain, the daughter of philosophy. There is, however, a difference betwixt science and philosophy as it stands now. One can speak of the two things differently.
     
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  7. Clockwood You Forgot Poland Registered Senior Member

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    Only 41 posts and he is already getting less coherent than some of the people over in the politics subforum. Quite an achievement.
     
  8. kriminal99 Registered Senior Member

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    Tell him hes a mentally weak sheep minded fool.
     
  9. Shifty Russian International Man of Mystery Registered Senior Member

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    Meanwhile, you're a mentally weak sheep minded fool.

    - Shifty Russian
    www.WhoMakesYouSick.com ...tell the world
     
  10. VitalOne Banned Banned

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    yeah that's why it's called philosophy and not science
     
  11. Meanwhile Banned Banned

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    ...
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2006
  12. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    Meanwhile:

    Simple: Without philosophy, science would not exist. Here's just a list of some of the important philosophers who have made science possible:

    Aristotle - philosopher and arguably the father of science.

    Pythagoras - philosopher and one of the most important mathematicians in history.

    Avicenna - Philosopher and extremely important figure in medicine.

    William of Ockham - Philosopher and creator of Ockham's razor.

    Descartes - Philosopher and creator of Cartesian coordinate systems.

    Leibniz - Co-creator of calculus and philosopher.

    Francis Bacon - Father of the scientific revolution, and oh, a philosopher.

    William James - Exceedingly important figure in psychology and, once again, a philosopher.

    Whitehead - Philosopher and important figure in science.

    This is just a -short- list, by the way. I could go further in depth.

    Now, let's also tackle the two main presumptions of science: Materialism and empiricism. Guess what these are? Philosophical stand points! Imagine how much difference if materialism was -not- the main focus of science? And it allowed theological speculation, immaterial substances, and all that jazz? Or what if science rejected the notion of empiricism and started simply thinking things up from a viewpoint of pure rationalism?
     
  13. river-wind Valued Senior Member

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  14. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    Meanwhile:

    Well, it's technically about -both- philosophy and science, so either is right. But one is more likely to get a "preaching to the choir" response, as more people here are likely to agree with the notion that philosophy is the mother of science, whilst some scientist-types - (Q) comes to mind - have a disdain of philosophy.

    Ah, I fully agree. In fact, were a Dr. title needed to become a philosopher, half the great philosophers wouldn't even be able to be called such!

    You didn't offend me, at the very least. I take no offense from anything that isn't meant to be taken offense from.

    Even -zanier-.
     
  15. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

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    scientists philosphise all the time. what is a theory if not something thats rooted with philosophy.
     
  16. jn7 Registered Member

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    I have been studying atomic energy and eastern and western philosophy for a long time. About a year before he passed on an interviewer asked Christopher Reeves. If you were going to an island from which you would Never return and you could take only one book with you, What would that book be? I would most definitely take, "The Secret Path by Dr Paul Brunton, he said. The person who finishes this book will not be the same person that began reading it.
     
  17. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    I'd personally take "How to Escape a Desert Island in Ten Easy Steps".
     
  18. Tyler Registered Senior Member

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    If he means it's not a physical science, fine.
    But it is (suppose to be) a derivational, and inferential study. A science is something which can be exact. Philosophy can.
     
  19. TrueCreation Registered Senior Member

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    philosophy is not science, but science is philosophy.

    I think every student majoring in a hard science should take a course in philosophy of science.
     
  20. JoeTheMan Registered Senior Member

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    *Any* question considered from a philosophical perspective turns into philosophy. You can examine the assumptions and products of a scientific framework as science, as philosophy, as neither or as both. They just represent a conceptual grid for aligning and summarizing observable phenomena.
    So philosophy is not *just* science, as science is not *just* philosophy. There are different motivations behind different kinds of questions, even and if they end up at the same kinds of answers.
    Philosophers differ from scientists in that they seek to rigorously examine any kind of conceptual construction for validity. Everything is placed before the altar of wisdom, whereupon that which is doubtful is rightfully suspected. Science willingly places a veil over its eyes in an effort to totalize or objectify reality. But the experimenter is always part of the experiment. Being outside one system already means that you're inside another system. So objectivity is, from the perspective of achieving certainty, a farce just as much as subjectivity.
    Not to be pessimistic, however, we must add that while science, indeed, has a priori metaphysical motivations encoded within its methods, its saving grace is its predictive power and not its claim upon absolute truth, proof or certainty. The methods of science are extremely effective at producing reliable, efficient solutions to practical problems.
    While, in a sense, you can say that philosophy underlies *any* form of purposeful thinking, philosophy is a malleable thing. We can say that a persons philosophy reflects or contains their weltanschuung, their worldview. Philosophy can aim at the subjective experience of realtiy, or an ontological description of the world. An empty philosophy is one that leaves only doubt--e.g., nihilism.
     

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