Re: WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE PHILOSOPHY ??

The other answers to this thread are interesting, aren't they? I have
long heard it argued that what philsophy is or ought to be is one of
the problems of philsophy.

If one takes a Quinean line and argues that the distinction between
analytic and synthetic judgements is in fact blurry, then science and
philsophy are really much the same thing. One could say, echoing James
Russell, that philosophers deal with more refined facts (closer to the
analytic end of the Quinean spectrum) and scientists with cruder fact
(the synthetic end of the spectrum). But of course all scientific
theories are based on refined facts, and the game is to see how much of
the empirical facts we can encompass within that framework. This helps
makes sense of some of the conceptual issues that plague Psychology,
for example. For both nature and nurture (to use the old chestnut) are
obviously true, but how much of the evidence can we pile up under one
or the other heading?

Bertrand Russell was once asked about the difference between theology
and philosophy. I believe that he replied that theologians knew the
answer (Jesus is the answer! What was the question? to quote the bumper
sticker) but just had to work out how to get there. On the other hand
philsophers did not know where their logic would take them.

The latter point is much truer in science than in philosophy. Just
think how weird QM is, for example. No thinker would ever have dreamed
it up without the constant nudging of annoying experimental facts...

Lance

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE PHILOSOPHY ??
    ... the problems of philsophy. ... that philosophers deal with more refined facts (closer to the ... Bertrand Russell was once asked about the difference between theology ... The latter point is much truer in science than in philosophy. ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
  • Re: What is science?
    ... Robert J. Kolker wrote: ... > Science won, metaphysics lost. ... > Philsophy never produced a toaster or an anti-biotic. ... "Darwin's theory has no more to do with philosophy than any other ...
    (talk.origins)