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The Pathway Machine
#31
RE: The Pathway Machine
(December 21, 2008 at 8:23 am)Purple Rabbit Wrote: I didn't say that it cannot become science, but technically it only becomes science whem it can be formulated falsifiable. So in essence you acknowledge this in your reply. You acknowledge that philosophy and science are intertwined. Philosophy feeds science and science feeds philosophy. Another example is how cognitive philosophy and cognitive science are related. Daniel Dennett is an excellent example of a person using philosophical investigation to dig deeper into the mind body problem an thereby triggering scientific research.
Yes, I agree with this, but the transition must be made clear. Philosophy isn't science until you can make it falsifiable.
Quote:You are wrong there. Philosophy cannot and has not conclusively answered any existential question. Name one example where philosophy has conclusively answered existential problems like free will, mind body problem, the existence of god.
Philosophy tries to answer questions that cannot be reasonably answered by the scientific method. I never said it did answer them conclusively.
Quote:That really is the worst example you could give. Philosophy does not conclusively answer any ethical issue. Furthermore it clearly needs science as input, for instance biological knowledge to assess the impact of abortion on the foetus.
How is it a bad example? Again, I never said that philosophy can conclusively answer. In fact, a "conclusive" answer in philosophy is impossible to achieve due to the nature of the questions and the context of them. This is what makes the subject philosophy! Yes, it needs scientific input, but the question is one primarily of philosophy.
Quote:Well it does not follow from the shortcomings of science that philosophy can answer these questions. A clear non sequitur. Ethics at best is about applying reason to normative thinking. Still it is normative. Answers depend on the intentions of the beholder of presented 'problems'.
It was to my understanding that questions not answerable by science (such as ones to do with ethical questions, etc) are automatically placed in the realm of philosophy to be answered. I think you seem to be taking my usage of the word "answer" to mean "answer perfectly and completely correctly". This is not the case (obviously) and I am well aware that philosophy has no true correct answers since they are questions that can have multiple ways of looking at them.
Quote:Much of philosophy, especially ethics is educated opinion. There are no conclusive answers in philosophy alone, there is only careful dissecting of questions with reason as a tool.
Exactly my point, and I think your confusion comes from misunderstanding my use of the word "answer". An answer is a response to a direct question. Answers are not necessarily correct (most people give wrong answers in their lifetime!)
Quote:Wrong again. There is an ethical side to electric cars that philosophy can ponder.
True I suppose, but I think you can see where I am coming from. There are many scientific questions that do not have any direct philosophical questions associated with them.
Quote:Your use of the word 'primarily' shows my point which is that science and philosophy overlap one another.
And I agree with you totally. The point is that there are specific distinctions between questions that are primarily ones of philosophy, and those of science. Yes, you can use aspects of philosophy when answering scientific questions, and you can use aspects of science when answering philosophical questions.
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#32
RE: The Pathway Machine
OK Adrian,

It seems we agree on more then was clear from previous postings. I'm glad you clarified your views.
"I'm like a rabbit suddenly trapped, in the blinding headlights of vacuous crap" - Tim Minchin in "Storm"
Christianity is perfect bullshit, christians are not - Purple Rabbit, honouring CS Lewis
Faith is illogical - fr0d0
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