Hi Steve
Perhaps scientists haven't kept up with philosophy as well as they could
have and thus have a poor understanding of current philosophical
positions. Dawkins has said similar things about philosophy as well if I
remember correctly. But then he's said some fairly odd things in general.
I think to a great extent those that practice science often see
philosophy in general and metaphysics in particular as a competing
oppositional system and so get very edgy and dismissive of it. Although
in some cases I can hardly blame them when the philosophy is poor.
I think the more enlightened practitioners of both science and
philosophy regard them as complementary and not oppositional.
In my opinion of course.
Horse
On 15/09/2010 15:25, Steven Peterson wrote:
Hi All,
What did Hawking mean when he wrote "philosophy is dead"?
> From new book:
"We each exist but for a a short time, and in that time explore but a
small part of the whole universe. But humans are a curious species. We
wonder, we seek answers. Living in this vast world that is by turns
kind and cruel, and gazing at the immense heavens above, people have
always asked a multitude of questions: How can we understand the world
in which we find ourselves? How does the universe behave? What is the
nature of reality? Where did all this come from? Did the universe need
a creator? Most of us do not spend most of our time worry about these
questions, but almost all of us worry about them some of the time.
Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is
dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science,
particularly physics. Scientists have become the bearers of the torch
of discovery in our quest for knowledge. HTe purpose of this book is
to give the answers that are suggested by recent discoveries and
theoretical advances. They lead us to a new picture of the universe
and our place in it that is very different than the traditional one,
and different even from the picture we might have painted just a
decade or two ago. Still, the first sketches of the new concept can be
traced back almost a century."
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