Article ID: CBB240802012

Science and Philosophy: A Love–Hate Relationship (2020)

unapi

In this paper I review the problematic relationship between science and philosophy; in particular, I will address the question of whether science needs philosophy, and I will offer some positive perspectives that should be helpful in developing a synergetic relationship between the two. I will review three lines of reasoning often employed in arguing that philosophy is useless for science: (a) philosophy’s death diagnosis (‘philosophy is dead’); (b) the historic-agnostic argument/challenge “show me examples where philosophy has been useful for science, for I don’t know of any”; (c) the division of property argument (or: philosophy and science have different subject matters, therefore philosophy is useless for science). These arguments will be countered with three contentions to the effect that the natural sciences need philosophy. I will: (a) point to the fallacy of anti-philosophicalism (or: ‘in order to deny the need for philosophy, one must do philosophy’) and examine the role of paradigms and presuppositions (or: why science can’t live without philosophy); (b) point out why the historical argument fails (in an example from quantum mechanics, alive and kicking); (c) briefly sketch some domains of intersection of science and philosophy and how the two can have mutual synergy. I will conclude with some implications of this synergetic relationship between science and philosophy for the liberal arts and sciences.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB240802012/

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Authors & Contributors
Mansilla, Veronica Boix
Bliersbach, Markus
Marniok, Karl
Thorén, Henrik
Soetaert, Ronald
Friedman, Lester D.
Concepts
Arts and humanities
Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
Science
Academic disciplines
Philosophy of science
Philosophy
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
18th century
15th century
Places
South Asia
United States
Germany
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