Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!ut-sally!husc6!linus!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech Subject: Re: Definition of science and of scientific method. Message-ID: <2250@mmintl.UUCP> Date: Fri, 17-Jul-87 20:13:25 EDT Article-I.D.: mmintl.2250 Posted: Fri Jul 17 20:13:25 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 19-Jul-87 20:39:23 EDT References: <6693@allegra.UUCP> <1664@tekcrl.TEK.COM> Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT. Lines: 33 In article <813@klipper.cs.vu.nl> biep@cs.vu.nl (J. A. "Biep" Durieux) writes: >4) Philosophy starts with quarreling about whether God exists, then whether >I exist ... > >5) Science starts (or: sciences start) from the results of the philosophers' >work (unhappily the philosophers aren't ready yet, ... I think this view of philosophy is fundamentally backward. Philosophy does not *start* with the kind of fundamental questions posed here. It starts with everyday life, and works backwards to more and more fundamental questions. No subject matter is built on its philosophical "foundations"; rather the foundations are built to try to support the existing subject matter. If the philosophical basis is inadequate, we don't change the subject matter, but instead find a better philosophy. Calculus provides a good example. Calculus was originally developed using infinitesimals. This was found to be inadequate, and limits were invented to supplant it. But the body of theorems making up the subject was not changed by this. Nor is there any reason to believe that this is a temporary state of affairs, that the philosophers will someday be "ready". For each question, there is a deeper question; I see no reason to think that some kind of ultimate question will be found. (For example, few philosophers would regard the existence of God (or of self) as the ultimate question; most would want to know what it means for God or self to exist.) Metaphorically, knowledge is not a building, for which a superstructure is built on a foundation, but a tree, which sends roots down and branches up. -- Frank Adams ihnp4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka Ashton-Tate 52 Oakland Ave North E. Hartford, CT 06108