What does philosophy mean to you. How does it differ from science? What are the distinctions?

Question

Is philosophy stagnant? What is your opinion on this?

Answer 1

Philosophy is an all-important aspect of our lives. It is philosophy that we turn to when have the need to seek out a guiding principle for our lives. Therefore, philosophy holds a prominent place in society and in the world. Basically, everyone is a philosopher, but it takes the creative genius and reasoning of brilliant thinkers to bring about world-shattering concepts. Nevertheless, the common man also ruminates about his life and his unique existence to try to find the meaning of his life. Over a life time, a constitution or a theme is developed to discern the ideas that one can readily accept. Interestingly, the philosophies of men separated by vast chasms of time and space all embrace upon a common theme of life. This theme is so broad as to encompass everyone's ideas and beliefs and allows for future inclusions.

We live in a culture in which science, along with its applications in ever more powerful technology, predominates. That is, perhaps, the most distinctive mark of the twentieth century. The glorification and adulation of science give the word "scientific" its eulogistic connotation. Other forms of intellectual endeavor call themselves "scientific" when, in fact, their mode of inquiry, which may be investigative, is not scientific at all in method or aim. The adjective "scientific" has almost become a synonym for "excellent" -- for "trustworthy" and "reliable."

Under these pervasive cultural circumstances, philosophy takes a back seat. It either does not try to compete with scientific knowledge in the sphere of first-order questions, occupying itself with the processes of logical and linguistic analyses in the sphere of second- order questions; or it weakly claims for itself the eminence it once had in antiquity and the Middle Ages, an eminence that it no longer deserves in view of the numerous grave mistakes made by philosophers since the seventeenth century. A telling sign of philosophy's great disrepute at present is the fact that, of the 8,730 philanthropic foundations in the United States, not one lists philosophy among the guidelines for its giving.

Answer 2

Let's put it this way:

To perform science, certain assumptions are made. It is assumed that an objective reality exists. It is assumed that it has a certain constancy. It is assumed that it follows rules. And it is assumed that through reason and other processes the nature of such rules and the current state of that objective reality may be determined.

But there is no reason why any of those assumptions MUST be true. And science cannot itself prove such things because without those assumptions there IS no science.

If you like, you can think about what caused these assumptions to be made and what the consequences might be if they prove to be false. When you do this, you are asking what would be generally identified to be pretty typical philosophical questions.

In other words, science exists BECAUSE of philosophy. For most of history, it has even been cosidered to be a SUBSET of philosophy. Even now, most degrees given by universities in a scientific field will read 'Doctor of Natural Philosophy' for the most scientific of fields. THIS IS NO ACCIDENT!

Science might be said to be a description of the universe that is produced when the philosophy of the 'scientific method' is applied. If, on the other hand, you are interested in things that science cannot (even in theory) describe, even something as elementary as "Why does science seem to work?", you will have to turn to philosophy.

Philosophy is a search for the truth... science is the search for a certain KIND of truth. Science is indisputably very effective at solving certain kinds of problems, but it will never solve all problems (ethics, logic, and metaphysics just to name a few).

Answer 3

As compare to other sciences 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 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.

Answer 4

philosophy is the study of the process of inquiry itself, and by doing so attempts to illuminate the nature of existance, reality, and life. science deals with verification of the observable world. philosophy helps us define what things mean. philosophy offers critical thinking and constructive critisism to the scientific method, without philosophy science would not have made the advances it has.

Answer 5

Philosophy is not as accurate as science, I think. Philosophy actually doesn't lead anywhere. It eventually leads you to confusion. I prefer psychology because it's not as intuitive as philosophy. Maybe that's why it has become stagnant, it is too complicating.

Answer 6

it's somehow connected because philosophy about life is everything about life just the fact that science cannot yet prove invisible cause thats happening around like a superstitous force

Answer 7

Philosophy is kind of like science except without falsifiability and experiments.

Answer 8

Thought then action, philosophy then science, then science for philosophy. It is a real actual person.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/index.htm

Answer 9

I often ask people interested in Philosophy if it is Fiction or Non-Fiction. The allways smile, and then I do to. Fiction is the agreed answer.

Answer 10

science is cold hard facts without emotions or feelings (unless of course you are measuring the energy etc. of feelings and emotions)