RE: Generally speaking, is philosophy a worthwhile subject of study?
February 18, 2022 at 8:32 pm
(This post was last modified: February 18, 2022 at 8:49 pm by polymath257.)
(February 18, 2022 at 11:37 am)Angrboda Wrote:(February 18, 2022 at 9:59 am)polymath257 Wrote: What substantial idea has philosophy (as done by a philosopher, not a specialist in the area of study) given in the last 200 years that has actually played a role in physics? or chemistry? or biology? or geology?
Falsification, which came out of Popper's rationalism, as well as the criticisms of the logical positivists. Without those, science would still be stumbling.
I doubt it. Science was doing quite well long before Popper. And Popper's ideas didn't really lead to a revolution in science. If anything, it described what most scientists were already doing.
(February 18, 2022 at 1:22 pm)GrandizerII Wrote: polymath seems to be under the impression that philosophy is in competition with science, but philosophers aren't (generally speaking) trying to use philosophy to do the same sorts of stuff that science can effectively do. And of course metaphysics has its uses, as it can guide and further expand upon what the sciences say, thus hopefully leading us in the right directions when seeking further answers via science.
Can you give a recent (within the last couple of centuries) where that has happened? When has metaphysics pointed a direction to solving a problem in the sciences? Even the atomic theory, which perhaps has the best claim to this sort of influence, is very different in its ancient manifestation and its modern one.
No, I do not think there is a conflict between philosophy and science. From the perspective of most scientists, philosophy has nothing at all to say. it is simply irrelevant to the conduct of science.
Again, don't get me wrong. I find philosophy fun to do and to discuss. I just don't expect it to actually contribute anything useful in the acquisition of knowledge. It does have great use in those subjects which are NOT knowledge based (such as ethics, aesthetics, etc). it can also be useful at the very beginning of a subject to look at what philosophers have explored. But that very quickly gets exhausted and the real science needs to step in and take over.
