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Single Idea 14001

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism ]

Full Idea

When people give arguments from scientific theories to philosophical conclusions, there is usually a good deal of philosophy built into the relevant scientific theories.

Gist of Idea

People who use science to make philosophical points don't realise how philosophical science is

Source

Ned Markosian (A Defense of Presentism [2004], 3.9)

Book Ref

'Persistence: contemporary readings', ed/tr. Haslanger,S/|Kurtz,RM [MIT 2006], p.327


A Reaction

I love this remark, being thoroughly fed up with knowledgeable scientists who are naïve about philosophy, and think their current theory demolishes long-lasting aporiai. They are up to their necks in philosophy.

Related Idea

Idea 7621 Special relativity, unlike general relativity, was operationalist in spirit [Putnam on Einstein]


The 30 ideas with the same theme [science is the way to solve philosophical problems]:

My Meditations are the complete foundation of my physics [Descartes]
Without philosophy, science is barren and futile [Hegel]
Science can drown in detail, so we need broad scientists (to keep out the metaphysicians) [Comte]
Only positivist philosophy can terminate modern social crises [Comte]
I am saturated with the spirit of physical science [Peirce]
Philosophy is an experimental science, resting on common experience [Peirce]
Scientific knowledge is nothing without a prior philosophical 'faith' [Nietzsche]
If philosophy controls science, then it has to determine its scope, and its value [Nietzsche]
Philosophy should be built on science, to reduce error [Russell]
Philosophers usually learn science from each other, not from science [Russell]
Philosophy is similar to science, and has no special source of wisdom [Russell]
Philosophy is not separate from or above empirical science [Neurath]
Science is all the true propositions [Wittgenstein]
Philosophy deals with the questions that scientists do not wish to handle [Ayer]
Philosophy is continuous with science, and has no external vantage point [Quine]
A culture needs to admit that knowledge is more extensive than just 'science' [Putnam]
'True' and 'refers' cannot be made scientically precise, but are fundamental to science [Putnam]
Modern philosophy tends to be a theory-constructing extension of science, but there is also problem-solving [Nagel]
All worthwhile philosophy is synthetic theorizing, evaluated by experience [Papineau]
If infatuation with science leads to bad scientism, its rejection leads to obscurantism [Critchley]
Science gives us an excessively theoretical view of life [Critchley]
Scientism is the view that everything can be explained causally through scientific method [Critchley]
Empirical investigation can't discover if holes exist, or if two things share a colour [Merricks]
Since Kant, philosophers have claimed to understand science better than scientists do [Meillassoux]
Scientism says most knowledge comes from the exact sciences [Hanna]
We should abandon intuitions, especially that the world is made of little things, and made of something [Ladyman/Ross]
The supremacy of science rests on its iterated error filters [Ladyman/Ross]
A metaphysics based on quantum gravity could result in almost anything [Ladyman/Ross]
People who use science to make philosophical points don't realise how philosophical science is [Markosian]
Scientists know everything about nothing, philosophers nothing about everything [Sagan,D]