Is Philosophy a science?

Answer 1

Philosophy is No Man's Land. Philosophy is inclusive of all subjects in the world. Science is also a part of it. For analysing a matter there are a lot of subjects in this world. If a thing has no subject in which it can be confined it has to be dealt with by the Subject called Philosophy. So, Philosphy is a Subject of all subjects!

Answer 2

well by definition science has a disprovable hypothesis. Philosophy does not. Philosophy is more robust in this respect. However, unfortunately in our society people are beginning to worship science and believe it can solve the worlds problems. Probably most of the true problems will be tackled in religion and philosophy. For instance no responsible scientist will ever be able to definitively prove free will vs determinism. In fact science can't prove anything, just disprove.

Answer 3

NO. The truly bonafide sciences are physics and chemistry. Philosophy is not even called a soft science.

Surprisingly, in some ways, the methods of contemporary high level philosophy are more exacting than science, but its objects of investigation differ too.

Also surprisingly, the ongoing development of scientific method is a philosophical enterprise.

Science asks questons about the natural world, or about physical structures. If a question is not about those, it cannot be called a science question. Philosophy does not ask those questions.

Science came from philosophy. The pre-Socratics were proto-scientists. Biology, physics, and chemistry, and others, are rooted in philosophy, and were once called philosophy, but no longer. They split off once they became specialized. The same with theology. It once was philosophy. In fact, during the Medieval Period, questions about God were the crux of philosophical inquiry. Theology is now its own thing, and philosophy no longer deals with such questions. The same with the sciences.

For one thing, science asks questions about the relations among physical structures, i.e. about the natural world. Philosophy does not.

Answer 4

Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic). The word itself is of Greek origin: φιλοσοφία (philosophía), a compound of φίλος (phílos: friend, or lover) and σοφία (sophía: wisdom).

Though no single definition of philosophy is uncontroversial, and the field has historically expanded and changed depending upon what kinds of questions were interesting or relevant in a given era, it is generally agreed that philosophy is a method, rather than a set of claims, propositions, or theories. Its investigations are based upon reason, striving to make no unexamined assumptions and no leaps based on faith or pure analogy. Different philosophers have had varied ideas about the nature of reason, and there is also disagreement about the subject matter of philosophy. Some think that philosophy examines the process of inquiry itself. Others, that there are essentially philosophical propositions which it is the task of philosophy to prove.

To give an exhaustive list of the main divisions of philosophy is difficult, because various topics have been studied by philosophers at various times. Ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and logic are usually included. Other topics include politics, aesthetics, and religion. In addition, most academic subjects have a philosophy, for example the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mathematics, and the philosophy of history.

Metaphysics was first studied systematically by Aristotle, though he did not use that term. He calls it "first philosophy" (or sometimes just "wisdom"), and says it is the subject that deals with "first causes and the principles of things". The modern meaning of the term is any inquiry dealing with the ultimate nature of what exists. Within metaphysics, ontology is the inquiry into the meaning of existence itself, sometimes seeking to specify what general types of things exist (though sometimes the term is taken to be equivalent to metaphysics). The philosophy of mind is a part of metaphysics.

Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible. Among its central concerns has been the challenge posed by skepticism: the idea that all our beliefs and thoughts may be somehow illusory or mistaken.

Ethics, or 'moral philosophy', is concerned with questions of how agents ought to act. Plato's early dialogues constitute a search for definitions of virtue. Metaethics is the study of whether ethical value judgments can be objective at all. Ethics can also be conducted within a religious context.

Logic has two broad divisions: mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and what is now called philosophical logic, the logic of language.

Answer 5

No. Science is a conventional group project which impedes the individual par excellence: the philosopher. Classification of the various rubrics (see above answers) is without question, scientific conventionalism at its worst, obscuring the philosopher's unique and NECESSARY position relative to the vast scope of human endeavor. At exactly that juncture where science will not risk itself we can discern the beginning of philosophy, as only a radical thinker will RISK ALL and, with oblivious disregard for personal advantage (security, wealth, health), mortally engage the problematic that remains unrecognizeable to the "much-to-many" scientific tinkerers, whose efforts now include artificial minds to gather more information about matters of diminutional human importance.

Answer 6

Well, Melvil Dewey doesn't think so, as Philosophy is classed in the 100's and Science in the 500's.

The Dewey Classification system is updated all the time, and nobody has seen fit to move these classes closer together ;-)

Answer 7

Hi Sailcat64,
It's a science of the mind, rather than a natural science, and I think it is very different... However, I suppose it can be considered a science, because it sets hypotheses.. and then goes about answering them in a rational, often empirical manner, using truths and eliminating falsehoods... rather than just basing things on opinion....
>>>>
Thanks, for the question! :)

My regards!

Take care!

Answer 8

Yes. Logic is a cornerstone of Philosophy. Logic by definition is: the science of correct reasoning

Answer 9

no, its more a love of knowledge and thinking. You cant really prove Kierkegaard over Nietzche.

Answer 10

I think so.