The influence of philosophy on science
Sameer Khalil
Philosophy has always had, and continues to have, a significant influence on science, although the two subjects are regarded by many as two completely different modes of thinking. While science focuses on what can be observed, tested, and repeated, philosophy explores issues, including the nature of reality and the limits of our understanding, using rational thinking. Both fields utilize different methods to make conclusions such as empirically based hypothesis testing contrasted with logic-based analysis, which seems to be a clear difference. Hence, many believe the two disciplines do not benefit from the teachings of the other. The debate’s earliest forms took place in Athens, where Isocrates critic ized Plato’s philosophical attitude of approaching education, ‘ arguing that philosophers do not consider practical evidence, and hence do not contribute to scientific speculations about the physical environment ’ . 1 However, the two are complementary. Philosophers have helped scientists in various ways, from providing the logical basis of scientific methodology to observing flaws in scientific trends. The fundamentals of scientific methodology strive from philosophical thought, and scientists use methods developed by philosophers, such as classification and logical deduction, to prove hypotheses. Philosophy aids scientific experimentation owing to its tradition of classifying objects depending on the different types of properties they display. More recently, in the field of stem cell research, the philosophical analysis of ‘ stemness ’ , the property that defines a stem cell, has consequently led to the use of stem cells in cancer-based therapies. 2 Depending on the type of tissue, stemness can be a categorical property, a dispositional property, a relational property, or a systemic property, and what separates these classifying factors are what influences the cells to differentiate, either being intrinsically or extrinsically controlled, or by the environment. This analysis can highlight several problems or factors that will affect the physical object, useful for science as it can now deduce how to control all, or a combination of, these factors and investigate different cancer therapies, based on stemness. Secondly, philosophy tackles issues that science does not, and poses fundamental questions that science tries to prove. Suppose one looks at an object without any presuppositions or prior knowledge of what that object is, it is hard to interpret what this object is. Philosophy looks at what is not observable and questions this, not based on any environmental, case-specific factors that science relies on. To take a basic example, everything we know about the planets, the distance from the moon to the sun, and the motion of the planets around the sun, are all theoretical problems, based on ideas involving the force holding the planets in orbit or the role of infinity in the universe, all problems philosophy came up with through questioning the possibilities of relationships between cosmological objects. Lastly, philosophy incorporates a logical method of deduction into scientific methodology. If we add certain premises, or ‘ postulates ’ , and say P is equal to Q, and Q is also equal to R, S and T, we can logically deduct that P is
1 Rovelli 2018 . 2 Laplane et al. 2019.
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