Science vs. Philosophy: Methods and Significance
Scientific Methods
Formal Sciences
Formal sciences like logic and mathematics don’t rely on sensory observation but on the way of thinking. They are governed by internal methods (universality and necessity) and lack subjective interpretation. The real world is coordinated with experiments expressed in mathematical language. Common methods include axiomatic deduction, rules of formation and transformation, and induction theorems.
Social Sciences
Social sciences, including sociology, history, psychology, and economics, focus on human events and intentions. Two logical possibilities exist:
- Empirical-analytic method: Applies natural science methods to social sciences, focusing on methodological explanation.
- Hermeneutics: Treats social science as having a different status and adopts a specific methodology focused on understanding and comprehensive explanation. Influence and probability play a key role.
Empirical/Natural Sciences
Empirical sciences like physics, chemistry, and biology rely heavily on observation to provide information about the world. The hypothetical-deductive and inductive methods are employed:
- Observation
- Hypothesis formulation
- Deduction of consequences from the hypothesis
- Verification/falsification of consequences through experimentation
- Formulation of universal laws (provisional and subject to refutation)
Laws are governed by theories, which unify laws consistently.
Philosophical Methods
Rational-Empirical Method
Originating with Aristotle, this method asserts two sources of knowledge: sensible (senses) and intelligible (reason). It begins with physical experience and culminates in intellectual elaborations, seeking the common, universal, and necessary in reality.
Empirical Method
Developed by Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, this method separates reason and experience, prioritizing experience as the source of knowledge. Natural and social sciences depend on sensory experience and use inductive methods. Reason is the source of formal sciences, and its truths don’t require experience.
Rational Method
Descartes championed this method, emphasizing reason as the primary source of knowledge. Innate ideas are seen as having clarity and certainty. This method combines intuition and deduction, mirroring the mathematical model. However, 20th-century thinkers like Popper and Albert argued that knowledge is provisionally true and must be subjected to critical testing through experience.
Transcendental Method
Used by Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Apel, and Habermas, this method focuses on the subject’s reason rather than external things. It seeks universal and necessary conditions of possibility for action, hope, and knowledge. This “Copernican Revolution” reveals the common conditions of understanding. Humans have two sources of knowledge: sensibility and intellectual faculties.
Analytic-Linguistic Approach
This 20th-century method aims to clarify language through formal (logical and semantic) and informal (language use) analysis. Associated with the English empiricist tradition, it evolved from Moore, Russell, and Wittgenstein, through the Vienna Circle, to later schools in Oxford.
Hermeneutic Method
: Comes from “Schleiermachuer?, Gadamer and Rorty, (no rules) and Apel and Habermas is normative and is the art of interpreting and understanding the meaning of texts. It extends beyond the texts and globalization: human actions and historical events need to be understood and interpreted because they have some sense What of philosophy?: Is our world marked by two features are: – Haste changes Social – Assessment of positive knowledge this is weird talking of philosophical knowledge but says we need today more than ever philosophical knowledge for these reasons: a) we have to untangle the ends that we can and must rationally propose b) is to achieve it, the dimension of the universal, bypassing the special sciences, societies and cultures think. c) It provides criteria for rational criticism to help us fight against dogmatism. that would: – reflection (philosophical attitude) – argument: with presentation of reasons that can understand and accept that some say also that I do not agree that science does not give rise to the point of our lives, but I think if you try other things so we know has meaning. – Systematization and state argue in structures of relationships that make intelligible any statement. d) Finally seeks a knowledge integrator of all knowledge, and skills, from knowledge to action and providing them to the search for truth and human life. LIFE IS A LIFE WITHOUT PHILOSOPHY Shocked.