Philosophy and Science Essay

ism, intuition, art and trust argon each major(ip) achievements of the hu hu gay race mind. Like re light, school of thought calls for prudent reasoning and exact language. The constitution of philosopher and scientific discipline atomic number 18 somewhat identical in that they lead two relied on logical thinking and a quest for deeper truths regarding life and human nature. There render been great philosophers who nominate become scientists much(prenominal) as Copernicus and there have been scientists like Albert sensation who have subsequently become philosophers.Thus there is a clear-sighted relationship amongst information and philosophy. In old-fashioned times all fields of study including religion, science and art were accepted as part of philosophy. Science particularly, has been run intoed very important in every philosophic system. hardly with the rapid advance of acquaintance the sciences and the humanities separated from philosophy (Grolier, 19 79). They substantial their own methods of investigation and their own vocabularies. Philosophers in recent times pass to focus on general minds common to different fields. Thus we scrape that pictorial philosophy took its root in scientific investigation and later evolved into modern science.Philosophy buns be understood in every a popular way or a technical way. In the popular sense, any set of deeply held beliefs to the highest degree man, nature, society and perfection is called a philosophy. Everyone who has wondered about the kernel of life and found an answer that cheerful him as his own philosophy. In its more technical sense, philosophy heart a highly disciplined and reasonable method of criticizing fundamental beliefs to compensate them more clear and reliable. This method was initial certain by the ancient Greeks in the 6th century B. C. Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, and new(prenominal) learned men began to excogitate about the underlying ca uses of inbred phenomena like birth and death, rainfall and drought, the short regular motions of the planets, the reach of fire toward the toss away, and the fall of heavy objects toward the earth.In the earthly concern of today, science is regarded as an activity found on the experimental fabrication of facts, the mathematical modeling of its results, and the framing of hypotheses. Philosophy on the other pass deals with unanswerable ultimate questions about ethics and metaphysics, the convey of life, or the nature of truth.Todays philosophers and scientists travel along different paths, it is interesting to nonice that science and philosophy have had a common background and history. fix on the emergence of special scientific branches in the 19th and 20th centuries, lifelike philosophy covered all scientific activity. Isaac newton called himself a inseparable philosopher, and telescopes and air pumps used to be classified as philosophic instruments. immanent phil osophy or philosophia naturalis referred to the exploration and analysis of all things under the sky including stones to human mental functions and the winds and the stars. The natural philosophy evolved into modern scientific estimation by dint of the years 1200 to 1700. This period includes the introduction of Aristotles works into the nascent universities to the establishment of stable scientific institutions such as the Royal confederacy or the Acadmie des Sciences. Science as is known today is were characterized by experimentation, mathematical modeling, the publication of research results, and the sponsoring of scientific collaboration.Science is usually associated with skill of knowledge and more particularally science is connected to speculative knowledge compared to practical knowledge. The word science has its roots from the word Scientia originally meaning knowledge (Ross, 1996). Modern dictionaries define science as the observation, identification, description, exp erimental investigation, and theoretical expla solid ground of phenomena through methodological activity, discipline, or study. The true nature of science is best understood by focusing on its methodology.Fundamentally, then, science can be characterized as a method of obtaining reliable though not needed knowledge about the foundation around us. This knowledge includes twain(prenominal) descriptions of what happens and explanations of why it happens. The knowledge is reliable because it is continually tested and retested much of science is heavily interdependent, which means that any test of any scientific idea entails testing other, related ideas at the same time. The knowledge is not infallible because at no point do scientists assume that they have arrived at a final, definitive truth. Science is mostly about natural processes and natural events. It involves both(prenominal) description and explanation. Description tells what has happened whereas explanation tells why it happened. According to Science, forthcoming events may be predicted exactly based on knowledge of such events.The ancient Greeks formed the word philosophy from philos meaning lover and sophia meaning wisdom. A philosopher according to them was a person who devoted his lfie to the search of knowledge for its own sake without regard for its practical uses. The kind of knowledge that interested Thales and other philosophers of the 6th century B.C. was knowledge of nature and its laws. Philosophy on the other hand deals with the fundamental nature of existence, of man and of mans relationship to existence. Whereas science tries to take a microscopic sentiment in problem solving, philosophy tends to take a macroscopic aspect in problem solving. In general, philosophy questions often are a series of why-questions, whereas science is often said to assume how-questions. In the run-in of Ayn Rand In the realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but philosophy is the f oulness which makes the forest possible. (Ayn Rand in Philosophy Who Needs It) Generally speaking philosophy is an attitude, an approach, or even a calling to answer or to ask or to comment upon certain peculiar kinds of questions.Science and philosophy have always supported each other. While philosophy utilizes scientific discoveries to cave in it strength and a basis for generalizations, science utilizes philosophy to get a world view and perceive things from the framework of commonplace principles. It is a rise up known fact that early scientific ideas came from philosophers. The atomic structure of things was first expressed by Democritus and later expanded on by Lucretius and Diderot. What was hypothetically conceived by them was declared a scientific fact two centuries later. The Cartesian reflux as it is known in science was proposed by philosophers to apologise conservation of motion in the universe.Spinoza hypothesized determinism based on a general philosophical perce ption. The idea of the existence of molecules as complex particles consisting of atoms was developed in the works of the French philosopher Pierre Gassendi and also Russias Mikhail Lomonosov. The possible action of the cellular structure of animal and vegetable organisms, the idea of the learning and universal conjunctive of phenomena and the principle of the material unity of the world were all obtained through philosophical thought. Lenin as a philosopher formulated the principle of the inexhaustibility of matter which scientists consider as a firm methodological base (Spirkin, 1983).Just as science progressed through philosophical thought, philosophy was also enriched by science. The philosophical world view and methodology was impacted greatly with every major scientific discovery. Philosophical theories, statements and conclusions are deduced on the basis of scientific facts. Moreover, philosophical pro flecks, principles, concepts and laws are discovered through the general ization of these facts.Euclidian geometry and the mechanics of Galileo and Newton are scientific discoveries that impacted human reasoning in a significant manner. Copernicus heliocentric system changed the whole conception of the structure of the universe and Darwins supposition of evolution, changed the general perception of mans position in nature. Mendeleyevs table of chemical elements enhanced dread the structure of matter. Einsteins theory of relativity exposed the relationship mingled with matter, motion, space and time. The theory of higher nervous activity evolved by Sechenov and Pavlov deepened the philosophers understanding of the material foundations of mental activity, of consciousness. The creation and development by Marx, Engels and Lenin of the science of the laws of development of human society contributed further to philosophy in the realm of natural and accessible vortex of events (Spirkin, 1983).The history of natural and social science shows that scientists, on several occasions have leaned on world-views and methodological principles, categories and logical systems evolved by philosophers in the process of their researches. All scientists who think in terms of theory have expressed their gratitude in their writings and in their speeches.Thus, we find that the connection between philosophy and science is mutual. exactly this statement is found to be debatable among experts. There is a strong argument among scientists and philosophers that the two disciplines of science and philosophy do not necessarily need each other for growth. But there are others who feel that science can be informed by philosophy. Philosophy is highly valued due to its interconnection with life. But then, there are others who present that philosophy is based on vague theorizing and it should not have any link to science. However, it is significant to put down that there is no such warning for philosophers to keep away from science. The specific sciences cannot and should not break their connections with true philosophy (Spirkin, 1983).Most scientists, especial those who work with theories would agree that creative activity is closely linked with philosophy and that without expert knowledge of philosophical culture the results of that activity cannot become theoretically effective. Scientists with a powerful theoretical grasp, have always accepted the significance of philosophy to the growth of science. Philosophy does not replace the specialised sciences and does not ascendance them, but it does arm them with general principles of theoretical thinking, with a method of cognition and world-view. In this sense scientific philosophy legitimately toy withs one of the nominate positions in the system of the sciences.Truly scientific thought is philosophical to the loading just as truly philosophical thought is profoundly scientific, root in the sum-total of scientific achievements. Philosophical training gives the scientist a breadth and penetration, a wider scope in posing and resolving problems. Sometimes these qualities are bright expressed, as in the work of Marx, particularly in his Capital, or in Einsteins wide-ranging natural scientific conceptions. The interconnection between science and philosophy that has existed through the years has only grown stronger with time. It is inconceivable to achieve complete understanding of theories related to global problems without a massive grasp of inter-disciplinary and philosophical views.There are some people who argue that science has no need of philosophy. It is their contention that science is in itself philosophy. They hold that scientific knowledge is sufficient to provide answers to all problems including philosophical problems. But the cunning of philosophy lies in the fact that any form of patronage for it, any rejection of philosophy is in itself a kind of philosophy. It is as unacceptable to get rid of philosophy as it is to rid oneself of all conviction s. umpteen scientists who have maintained the positions of crude empiricism and scorned philosophy have eventually fallen into mysticism. Absence of philosophical assumptions leads to intellectual narrowness.Science necessarily philosophy due to its diversified branches. As Science has become so ramified, no can today master any particular overmatch such as medicine or biology or mathematics. Scientists are trying to know as much as possible about as little as possible. This kind of specific specialisation is both good and bad. Without narrow peculiarity there can be no progress in science and at the same time, such specialization must be constantly filled out by a broad inter-disciplinary approach, by the integrative power of philosophical reason. Narrow specialization has no breadth of vision and can thus lead to empiricism, to the imperishable description of particulars.While science requires researchers to look externally, philosophers tend to look both internally and exte rnally at the world around man and mans place in that world. This wholesome perception provided by philosophical consciousness is reflective in its very essence. Philosophy is not only an abstract science. It also deals with moral principles, ethics, and conscience. Today, advances in science have brought legion(predicate) kinds of conflict to society. For example, there is the question regarding nuclear bomb. Is it wrong for a nation to acquire nuclear bomb? Only ethical thinking have with scientific thinking can provide the right answer. Such questions as this one cannot be answered by science alone.While there are many examples showing that philosophical thought was behind many scientific discoveries, Bernal conceived that science was the starting point for philosophy it was the very basis of philosophy. bolshie social theory emerged within this process. For Bernal, there was no philosophy, no social theory, and no knowledge independent of science. Science was the foundation o f it all (Sheehan, 1985). As Bernal saw the transition to the future, scientific and socialist philosophical thinking compete a key role. For a long time, philosophers as diverse as David Hume, Karl Marx, and Edmund Husser felt that philosophy was scientific. But, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) felt that there are some problems that science alone can deal with and others it couldnt.Science and philosophy are both different paths taken by different people who desire to search the truth. Scientists and philosophers can be considered as seekers of true knowledge. These two subjects differ today in the nature and methodology. Despite these differences, true scientific theories are based on philosophy and true philosophical statements have their foundation in science.