🚀 go-pugleaf

"Steve Harris sbharris@ROMAN9.netcom.com" <sbharris@ix.netcom.com> wrote in
message news:79cf0a8.0311121608.39ec0523@posting.google.com...
> "Watson & Parisi" <niche@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:<bortg7$1r7$1@bob.news.rcn.net>...
> > The example is science itself. Empiricism is one epistemological
philosophy
> > among others, and the scientific method is its application. Science
didn't
> > spring fully armed from the head of Zeus, you know. It evolved out of
> > philosophy, which includes the philosophy of science.
> >
> > Robert.
>
>
> And modern plumbing didn't spring fully armed from the head of Zeus,
> either. It also evolved out of philosophy, inasmuch as there must be a
> philosophy of plumbing, yes? So QED.
>
> Alas, however, to talk about the philosophy of plumbing is to stretch
> the word "philosophy" far past the purposes for which it was invented,
> and in which, in modern times, it is used. Therefore your argument
> needs reexamination.

Plumbing is not a method for gaining knowledge; philosophy is. The empirical
method of gaining knowledge by testing hypotheses through observation was an
approach that developed over time, and that gained dominance because of its
self correcting nature. Surely the development of the approach itself is a
more fundamental insight than its particular applications, and that
development falls into the realm of epistemology, like it or not.

Robert.