Science and Philosophy

When we think about Science images of it comes to mind, exact answers, metrics, numbers, and facts about reality that are specialized and experimented. And when it comes to Philosophy we might think it is like a way of life, something of a free spirit and radical postures about life.

The fact is that Philosophy is a hypothetical interpretation of the Unknown (as in metaphysics), or of the inexactly known (as in ethics or political philosophy); it is the front trench in the siege of truth. Meanwhile, the scientist is as impartial as Nature in Turgenev’s poem: «he is as interested in the leg of a flea as in the creative throes of a genius.»

The scientist tells us how does nature works (facts) and its effects in the world, but the philosopher is not content to describe the fact; like a great detective of reality he or she wishes to ascertain its relation to experience in general, and thereby to get at its meaning and its worth; they combine things in interpretive synthesis; tries to put together better than before, that great universe-watch which the inquisitive scientist has analytically taken apart. They find meaning in every aspect of life to enrich our existence and move forward in the great mystery of life.

Science tells us how to heal and how to kill; it reduces the death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale in war, but only wisdom—desire coordinated in the light of all experience—can tell us when to heal and when to kill. To observe processes and to construct means is science; to criticize and coordinate ends is philosophy: and because these days our means and instruments have multiplied beyond our interpretation and synthesis of ideals and ends, our life is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

For a fact is nothing except in relation to desire; it is not complete except in relation to a purpose and a whole. Science without philosophy, facts without perspective and valuation, cannot save us from havoc and despair. Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.