Harmonizing Physics and Philosophy

Of course a philosopher would say that. "It's all philosophy."Philosophers have been trying to take credit for stuff forever, but they don't seem to ever really accomplish anything.Its like your a guy sitting in a trailer, saying that he's a "builder". And there are all these people outside the trailer who are building a building. And he's in there observing, maybe taking some notes, thinking about what's going on outside... and here I come along.He claims he's a builder, but I don't see him building anything. When pressed, he admits that he's not actually involved with the building project, itself. When I ask about his lack of doing anything, he explains the value he perceives in the things that he does really do. (as little as they seem to be)And then I expose that I really don't see any value in his position as a builder. And you know how he replies:"See all those people out there, well they're builders too."Awe hell no. Those people are actually doing shit. You're not even helping build anything!Philosophers! Ugh.

And yet scientists don't take philosophy courses to learn this basic philosophy. Philosophy is but an afterthought in the pursuit of science.

I wouldn't be as harsh, but that is my line of thought as well, and how most scientists view philosophy."philosophers are always with us, struggling in the periphery to try to tell us something, but they never really understand the subtleties and depths of the problem."--Richard FeynmanSteven Weinberg said something to the effect of "the only good philosophers do is point out bad philosophies".I don't want to bag on the philosophers too much since their pursuits can be held up favorably with the arts as a monument to human inspiration, but they are overstepping their bounds if they expect physicists to take them that seriously.Edited by Taq, : No reason given.

Taq writes: ...and yet all scientists in all fields pursue education all the way to the Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy in _________________.

They do that because that's what the degrees are usually named.If they had a choice between Ph.D. and D.Sc. or Sc.D. (Doctor of Science), which do you think they would choose?I'd certainly choose the latter.As it is, I managed a lot of years of college and had to take only one philosophy course, and for that I took Logic.But that's not my proudest accomplishment: in 11 years I managed to never take a single course in Economics or Sociology. And I got a Ph.D. without ever taking the GRE. These together are a major accomplishment, if not some kind of record...

Sounds to me, that you got by because of an affirmative action program for Republicans.Moose

One could argue that the scientific method of enquiry is the result of philosophical enquiry.....Everytime someone points out to Faith (or any other creationist on this site) why her interpretations, conclusions and whole approach to knowledge are inferior or just plain wrong as compared to the scientific method of enquiry - They are to some extent enagaging in philosophy rather than science.Without some aspect of philosophical thought how do we know that scientific conclusions are any more correct than those obtained by any other method?

I think that ethics might be includable in philosophy. I have certainly read interesting thinking from there. They may not arrive at any kind of conclusion any more than any philosophy seems to be able to but they can clarify the issues well.(Sent from my new google nexus somewhere near Barcelona. I feel almost part of the 21st century!)

My daughter spent a semester in Spain in 2009, only visited Barcelona for a day. Liked it much better than Salamanca where she said the Internet was very unreliable. Shame you're on the continent, we're heading to your home town for a couple days starting tomorrow.--Percy

I will be home Wednesday evening. Email and I'll give you my phone in case you have a spare moment. I can offer some ride about maybe. I was supposed to be home a few hours from now but they paid me lots to give up my seat.Abe: look up my phoned number if you have time. Two days isn't nearly enough.Edited by NosyNed, : No reason given.

And they often hear: "Pleased to meet you, Dr. So-and-So. Are you a real doctor or just a Ph.D?"(Of course, "real doctor" here means "physician", not "scientist".)

I commented the other day on how cheesy a show was and my daughter replied "Well yea, but it was made in the 1900's." (the show was from the early 90's )HBD

.Edited by Percy, : No reason given.