Posted: Oct 28, 2016 11:48 am
archibald wrote:SpeedOfSound wrote:archibald wrote:jamest wrote:What a load of horlicks, since philosophy itself exposes science/observation to be lame in the metaphysical department. That is, philosophy enables us to see the epistemological limits of science/observation, meaning that there is no sense at all in which science supersedes philosophy.
If I were you, I'd go and buy myself an armchair. It might help you to stop spewing silly and erroneous mantras.
Ok, do me the contributions of armchair philosophy to the biological sciences, for example. You know, the ones which include those who will see you in the hospital A & E department, despite your reservations about their epistemology.
Well. Actually. Biology has been changed a bit by some philosophy but it's not the kind of shit you will find around here.
Precious little, if any, imo.
Actually I think it has been changed massively. The holistic systems approach came out of some philosophy. I have some books. I can check if I get time and point to what I am talking about. I mean a lot of science is about building and predicting. But that doesn't cover the whole of it. Understanding our world and place in it, is a big part as well. Explaining it, for those whose highest value is to be fascinated with the complex of how things work, is another.
Philosophy allows us to analyze and deconstruct the language and thinking that presents to us what it is we want ask. Consider this mind business. The philosophy that lies beneath the question is in it's infancy. It's barely crawled out of the womb. The science is far, far ahead of our understanding of what it is that the science is explaining.
But until the language and thinking about 'mind' catches up to science people will continue to say ridiculous things like 'science hasn't explained mind-x' as if it were a fact. It is not a fact. It is a radical misunderstanding of the problem space. People who say this should be slapped sharply upside the head until they agree to re-think the question.