🚀 go-pugleaf

"Dio" wrote

> Science and philosophy (or epistemology) have been very important for our
> knowledge.
> But nowadays what is the main difference between science and philosophy?

Modern science crystallized out of a number of archaic traditions,
natural philosophy giving birth to science as we know it today,
often by way of other fields, such as astrology and alchemy. So
the bond between the two has widened considerably in recent
times. But, ultimately, methodological naturalism is philosophy,
and it has a politics of its own; it can't prove its basic assumptions
anymore than Marxism could. All it has going for it is it happens
to work, especially when combined with Capitalism and social
liberalism.

Modern analytic philosophy and science have a good deal in
common. They both have methods for determining the validity
of statements, philosophy being more concerned with meaning
than truth. Logical positivism is science turned on philosophy in
that it tries to ground itself in reality. It battles language the way
science attempts to dispel mythology and witchcraft.

Science searches for probabilistic truth, while philosophy strives
for logical consistency; whether a chunk of philosophy is "correct"
or not can't generally be determined. To the extent that it does
prove useful to science, as with physicalism, representationalism,
or logic, it has dual, overlapping roles, one often informing and
rehabilitating the other. Science, being totally valueless, is always
in need of social direction, and philosophy is prone to the sort of
silliness only a scientifically sophisticated culture can overcome.

-- 
Craig Franck
craig.franck@verizon.net
Cortland, NY