Philosophy of Science

 

T h e  L o v e  O f   W i s d o m

Many branches can be introduced under philosophy. One of them is the philosophy of science. Philosophy is very important to us. It is more important to comment on something or a creation or to present one own ideas. Philosophy is also known by the nickname "Queen of Science". 

     Philosophy is a logical query other than science. Maybe science will end the inquiries. Many philosophers and rationalists who lived in the past thought that there was nothing we could intelligently examine except scientific facts. But this opinion is often not correct. Which branch of science answers the question of whether or not science covers all logical queries?  Philosophical questions are questions about human  inquiry and the limits of knowledge.

        Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of experimental explanations and predictions about the universe. The knowledge gained is independent of problems and the steps used to find the right solution. There are some fields of the science, such as natural science, applied science, social science, formal science, applied science etc. Philosophy and Philosophy of science belong to natural science. The keywords which are mentioned above under the keyword topic, also belongs to the Philosophy of Science.

       Philosophy in its original sense is the "Love of Wisdom" and the search for understanding the underlying principles of life. It leads us to a deeper understanding of the meaning of events in society and over time. 

    *Philo (Love)    *Sophiya (Wisdom)        *Philisophia (Philosophy)

-Immanuel kant-

"Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination"

P h i l o s o p h y   O f   H i s t o r y:

    A term first coined by Voltaire, Philosophy of History means to search for wisdom in the study of history.

    Historically, philosophy encompassed all bodies of knowledge and a practitioner was known as a philosopher. From the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the 19th century, "Natural Philosophy" encompassed astronomy, medicine, and physics. For example, Newton's 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy later became classified as a book of physics.

-Aristotle-

(Greek Philosopher)

    In the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy and other disciplines to professionalize and specialize. Since then, various areas of investigation that were traditionally part of philosophy have become separate academic disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, linguistics, and economics.

    Today, major subfields of academic philosophy include metaphysics, which is concerned with the fundamental nature of existence and reality; epistemology, which studies the nature of knowledge and belief; ethics, which is concerned with moral value; and logic, which studies the rules of inference that allow one to derive conclusions from true premises. Other notable subfields include philosophy of science, political philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind.

A r e a s   O f   P h i l o s o p h i c a l   S t u d y:

    Epistemology, Logic, Ethics, Aesthetics, Metaphysics, Philosophy of the Mind, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Science are some of the fields of philosophical study. If they are discussed, 

• Epistemology - The philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. The term is derived from the Greek episteme (knowledge) and logos (reason), and accordingly the field is sometimes referred to as the theory of knowledge.
• There are three main examples or conditions of epistemology. Truth, belief and justification. First of all, truth occurs when false propositions cannot be discerned. Consequently, in order for something to be considered as knowledge, it must be true in nature.

• Logic - Logic used strictly in the singular, is a science that deals with the formal principles of reason. If a visitor walks in the house with wet hair, it is logical for one to assume that it is raining outside. 
• Both logic and logistics ultimately derive from the Greek logos, meaning "reason." But while logic derives directly from Greek, logistics took a longer route, first passing into French as logistique, meaning "Art of Calculating," and then into English from there.

• Ethics - At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy. 
• The three schools are virtue ethics, consequentialist ethics, and deontological or duty-based ethics. Each approach provides a different way to understand ethics.

• Aesthetics - Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines subjective and Sensitive emotions values, or sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste
• An example of the word is aesthetic is to say that a particular car is beautiful.

• Metaphysics - Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality.
• Ontology or general metaphysics, psychical or religious metaphysics and physical metaphysics.

-Parmenides-

(The father of metaphysics)

T h e   V a l u e   O f   P h i l o s o p h y:

    Philosophy is a branch of human inquiry and as such it aims at knowledge and understanding. We might expect that the value of philosophy lies in the value of the ends that it seeks, the knowledge and understanding it reveals. But philosophy is rather notorious for failing to establish definitive knowledge on the matters it investigates. 

    We do learn much from doing philosophy. Philosophy often clearly reveals why some initially attractive answers to big philosophical questions are deeply problematic, for instance. But granted, philosophy often frustrates our craving for straightforward convictions.

    Bertrand Russell argues that there is great value in doing philosophy precisely because it frustrates our desire for quick easy answers. In denying us easy answers to big questions and undermining complacent convictions, philosophy liberates us from narrow minded conventional thinking and opens our minds to new possibilities. Philosophy often provides an antidote to prejudice not by settling big questions, but by revealing just how hard it is to settle those questions. It can lead us to question our comfortably complacent conventional opinions. 

-Bertrand Russell-

Reading: Chapter 15 of Bertrand Russell’s Problems of Philosophy, “The Value of Philosophy”

P r a c t i c a l   P h i l o s o p h y:

    In the past, the practical aspect of philosophy was an essential part of the discipline. To be a philosopher meant not only to ‘talk the talk’ but also to ‘walk the walk’. In modern contexts, this practical aspect of philosophy and its application is often lost. 

    According to the American historian and philosopher Will Durant, a philosopher is not content to describe the facts but wishes to ascertain their relation to experience. Wisdom has a quality superior to and different from ordinary knowledge. Taking inspiration from the ancient philosophers of East and West, we promote philosophy as a way of life, which means not only studying philosophical ideas, but also aspiring to learn the art of ‘living well’. 

-Will Durant-

American writer, historian and philosopher

U s e   O f   P h i l o s o p h y:

    Much of what is learned in philosophy can be applied in virtually any endeavor. This is both because philosophy touches on so many subjects and, especially, because many of its methods are usable in any field.

• General problem solving - The study of philosophy enhances, in a way no other activity does, one’s problem-solving capacities. It helps one to analyze concepts, definitions, arguments and problems. It contributes to one’s capacity to organize ideas and issues, to deal with questions of value, and to extract what is essential from masses of information. It helps one both to distinguish fine differences between views and to discover common ground between opposing positions.

• Communication skills - Philosophy also contributes uniquely to the development of expressive and communicative powers. Enhances one’s ability to explain difficult material and helps one to eliminate ambiguities and vagueness from one’s writing and speech.

• Persuasive powers - Philosophy provides training in the construction of clear formulations, good arguments, and apt examples. It thereby helps one develop the ability to be convincing. One learns to build and defend one’s own views, to appreciate competing positions, and to indicate forcefully why one considers one’s own views preferable to alternatives. These skills can be developed not only through reading and writing in philosophy, but also through philosophical dialogue in the classroom and beyond, which is part of philosophical education.

• Writing skills - Writing is taught intensively in many philosophy courses, and many regularly assigned philosophical texts are unexcelled as literary essays. Striker and technique, then, are emphasized in philosophical writing. Originality is also encouraged, and students are generally urged to use their imagination and develop their own ideas.

• Understanding other disciplines - Philosophy is indispensable for this. Many important questions about a discipline, such as the nature of its concepts and its relation to other disciplines, do not belong to that discipline, are not usually pursued in it, and are philosophical in nature. Since all fields of knowledge employ reasoning and must set standards of evidence, logic and epistemology have a general bearing on all these fields.

• Development of sound methods of research and analysis - Still another value of philosophy in education is its contribution to one’s capacity to frame hypotheses, do research, and put problems into manageable form. Philosophical thinking strongly emphasizes clear formulation of ideas and problems, selection of relevant data, and objective methods for assessing ideas and proposals.

Philosophy is simply the in-depth study of ideas  and ideologies and the research and interpretation  of the world.

I hope my blog will help as I learn new things or recall what I already know.

-Thank You-

H.N.D.A. Sajitha

ashann188@gmail.com