Do you see Philosophy as necessary to science?

[Baikonur]

Nope.

 

[LURCH]

Originally posted by LURCH
Science is not possible without philosophy. Experimantation and observation alone do not constitute science. The observed results of an experiment reveal no scientific data until one reasons that a certain measurement leads to a certain conclusion. The moment we begin to use reason to assign meaning to a set of measurements, we engage in philosophy.

Logic is a philosophical discipline, and even pure mathematics is based on number theory, which is a philosophical understanding of how numbers work. How far can one's scientific investigations proceed without logic or mathematics?

This is why I find it so disturbing that many of today's most well- known scientists seem to have contempt for the philosophical disciplines, even though they cannot avoid the use of philosophical thought in every theory, hypothesis, and proof. As a friend of mine sometimes says, "Those who discount philosophy do not excuse themselves from using it; they merely condemn themselves to using it incorrectly."

Oh, and I forgot to mention Aristotle's principal of non-contradiction, where in the world would science be without that?! I mean, if we were stuck with statements like "the speed of light is invariable, but that does not necessarily mean that it is not also variable, now does it?" or "the sample has a mass of 10 kilograms, but that might also not be its mass", we would never get anywhere in the field of scientific investigation ! The fact that that which exists cannot also be nonexistent, and that which is nonexistent cannot also exist is a central pillar of scientific thought.