Philosophy vs. Science

Philosophy and science, the two subjects that most students find hard and boring. Oh please, don’t pretend you love both science and philosophy because most of the students don’t. But, if you do, congratulations! We have a new Aristotle! or Einstein! Or whoever you want to become! 

Seriously, these two subjects are really hard to study and very deep but, as time goes by, you’ll probably enjoy it. A pre-med student like me has no choice but to love science because sooner or later, it will be the foundation of my career as a future psychologist. Philosophy? Well, it can help also, it will help me to make wise decision and be a critical thinker, just like what a psychologist should be. 

So what’s with philosophy and science? What’s the clash between these two “life-changing” courses? First, let’s define both philosophy and science, shall we? 

According to www.whatisphilosophy.net, Philosophy is an academic discipline that exercises reason and logic in an attempt to understand reality and answer fundamental questions about knowledge, life, morality and human nature. While, science, as we all know, is a systematized body of knowledge based on facts and everyday phenomena. Well I hope you understood those meanings. If you don’t, let’s put this way. Philosophy talks about talks, exercising your mind to understand and to reason out like, did God really exist? Science, on the other hand, uses step-by-step procedures and oh-so-long formulas to prove something. In short, Philosophy is reason-based logical analysis while science is empirically-based hypothesis testing. 

Generally, people think that science and philosophy are as one. Science did originate from Philosophy, originally called as Natural Philosophy. But, they are very distinctive. Though, they both apply critical thinking. 

Why do we need to debate over these matters? Can we just get over it and be happy what we have now? Can we just be contended and be thankful that philosophers and scientists did these amazing things to make our lives comfortable and knowledgeable? If you are really curious as I am, then you’ll probably take some time to read about these things. It’s like a food of knowledge, food for your precious brain. It is nice to learn something new, you know, for future references. 

All in all, we have to realize that philosophy and science, whether they different or not, gave huge contributions to our lives. They are the foundation of the careers that give professionals huge amount of money! They help us to live accordingly, from what we plan, to making wise decisions. You may not appreciate it that much, but sooner or later, you’ll get interested and will have time to squeeze your brain thinking and thinking about this or that, everything you want to find out! That’s why curiosity can be an advantage to become a critical thinker. The more curious you are, the more you search and prove what you’re looking for. This is what we need to become, to be a critical thinker. 

Philosophy and science are just like game of sports. You can’t have a basketball award if you are a football player. You just can’t. Basketball and football are two different games but both exercise the mind and body to focus and be ready for the next game. Just like philosophy and science, they use different methods to prove a thing but both of these feed your mind with knowledge to help you in living your life.

Short Critique for the article: "Philosophy is Not a Science"

To sum up the article, it was stated that Philosophy is not a science because some disciplines we follow, where we treat as science, are more of philosophical than scientific. Thus, these disciplines don't rely on empirical observations but see them as rationalized concepts. Science can produce incomplete or inaccurate observations while in philosophy, findings primarily depend on logical and rational principles. Science tends to update and improve its finding everyday through trial-and-error but with logical deduction, it will take you forever to alter. Philosophy is not a science for it employs rational tools of logical analyzing and conceptualizing than following standard measurements.

I will probably agree with the author that philosophy is not a science. According to McGinn, the definition of science is indefinite that is betrays a widespread confusion of what actually science is. If we replace some disciplines like "Fine arts" to "aesthetic science" or "Literary studies" to "literary sciences", it will sound genius or smart right? But these kind of disciplines are primarily subjective and more on qualitative ones and for science, its objective and quantitative. But Philosophy can too, with logic and critical analysis.

Philosophy doesn't need measuring tools or instruments to define love or knowledge; it doesn't only rely on empirical observations but it searches for the logic behind it. We test our knowledge with science, but we test our reasoning with philosophy. Science cannot test one's value but philosophy can. Philosophy sets it standards for science and it doesn't reject evidences but it interprets the evidences critically.