Philosophy of science

The study of the foundations, methods, history, implications and purpose of science.

Is politicization of science justified? Should science be governed by politics?

By / / Philosophy of science, Political philosophy / , , , ,

Thank you for this crucial question. Aristotle believed that the highest human end is happiness, and that politics (or what Aristotle called “statesmanship”) is the science that directs the political community toward happiness. One possible consequence of this view is that what we nowadays call “science”—the systematic examination of the empirical world—is subordinate to politics […]

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Should we accept death and ageing, or try to beat them with science?

By / / Ethics (Moral Philosophy), Philosophy of science / , , , ,

Thank you, Dávid Mező, for this immortal question. Unsurprisingly, we are living beings that are born, develop, reproduce, and die. This seems almost a necessity. However, we sometimes hear in the media about astonishing advances in the genetics of senescence and the medical treatment of ageing. The subject, if not yet topical today, will most

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Is being less emotional a necessary virtue for being a mathematical or a natural scientist?

By / / Philosophy of mind, Philosophy of science / , ,

The premise here being that emotional people are not mentally able to concentrate deeply on complex problems after a point of time when faced with personal or social turmoil. Maybe that’s why most scientists remain disconnected with the world. Thank you Bipul Verma for an intriguing question. The point is that some people have a

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What is a cultural shift?

By / / Philosophy of human nature, Philosophy of religion, Philosophy of science / , , , ,

Thank you, Ali Muràád Bàloç, for such an interesting question. To understand what one might mean by ‘cultural shift’, we first need to understand what we mean by ‘culture’. Friedrich Nietzsche described human beings as orphans of nature because, compared to other animals, we are all but devoid of instincts. Unlike other animals, humans are

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What is the point of science and technology?

By / / Philosophy of religion, Philosophy of science / , ,

Thank you, Bálint Birkás, for a great question! It is a question that I often ask myself whenever I hear about a new useless invention in the news. Looking at those, you could be tempted to say that the point of science and technology is to develop science and technology, just because we can. But

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Can the AI be considered a God?

By / / Philosophy of religion, Philosophy of science / , , ,

Thank you, Gnanak Gerhardson Munnangi, for such a deep question. With its increasing development in various fields, Artificial Intelligence resembles more and more its sci-fi representations from novels and movies of the last century. Some philosophers and scientists, such as Nick Bostrom, believe that once AI reaches the level of human intelligence, it will rapidly

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Can science determine morality? If so, how?

By / / Ethics (Moral Philosophy), Philosophy of science, Value Theory / , , ,

Thank you, Andy Chartier, for such an intriguing question. Very generally, science is a methodological investigation into physical phenomena that aims at describing the actual world with the highest possible precision. Morality is an inquiry into what sorts of things we ought to value (compassion over hate) and what sorts of things we ought to

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Could we say that the universe began like a mathematical equation?

By / / Metaphysics, Philosophy of science / , , , , ,

Thank you, Leonardo Assis, for such a scientific question! I think you would be quite right to say that a mathematical explanation of the beginning of the universe is plausible. The current common explanation of where our universe comes from – the big bang theory and the theory of the expansion of the universe –

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Would introducing genetic engineering of humans as a medical practice be that bad?

By / / Ethics (Moral Philosophy), Philosophy of human nature, Philosophy of science / , , , , ,

Thank you, Amir Ayazbayev, for a great question! This question concerns two important philosophical problems: What does it mean to be human? And, what should be the limits of medical intervention? In the case of genetic engineering, we can distinguish three main perspectives. The first, called bioconservatism, suggests that there is an undefined ‘X factor’ somewhere

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