Philosophy and Science: What Can I Know?

Abstract

Philosophy is a thorny subject. Many philosophical statements cannot be formally proven, resulting in clever but endless debates. Scientists usually shy away from such ambiguity and retreat into their safe world of perceived clarity. Nevertheless, the philosophical study of nature is the wellspring of science. Simply asking “What is a law of nature?” poses a philosophical challenge. The philosophy of science is concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science and how scientists conduct their research. The first attempts to systematize the scientific method was based on common sense: from observations abstract laws are found. This view turned out to be untenable and both inductive and deductive reasoning suffer from conceptual problems. Indeed, science is not an incremental process accumulating knowledge but is greatly influenced by social and cultural conditions. It comes perhaps as no surprise that an animosity exists between science and philosophy. For instance, the controversial philosopher of science, Paul Feyerabend, continually challenged the scientific establishment. Historically, the emergence of modern physics overthrew nearly every postulate of classical science and replaced them with bizarre new concepts, from elusive quantum fluctuations to the fabric of space-time. The aftershocks of this fundamental transformation still echo to this day. On the one hand the universe is, miraculously, comprehensible to the human mind, but on the other hand scientific progress appears to be slowing down. Paradoxically, every question answered raises more and harder questions and theories appear to be losing meaning. If asked, some scientists will admit to these shortcomings: uncertainty and ignorance are inherent and ubiquitous in science. The final blow to a clear foundation of knowledge comes from the discoveries that incompleteness and randomness lurk at the heart of mathematics. Level of mathematical formality: low.