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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