Is Science Going To End?
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Is Science Going To End?
Our philosophical science correspondent Massimo Pigliucci asks.
https://philosophynow.org/issues/68/Is_Science_Going_To_End
https://philosophynow.org/issues/68/Is_Science_Going_To_End
Re: Is Science Going To End?
Brilliant question, one I have never even thought of to be frank.
I am of the opinion that the science will not disappear, however the nature of what constitutes it will shift from a strict emphasis on finite materialism to a mixture of empiricism and metaphysics. Science is strictly "observation", and the current model of observation we employ offers no self-reflective capability through metaphysics to give it any form of stability.
Previous forms of metaphysics were strict "self-reflection" with little to no reflection on the environment itself.
Modern science fundamentally has to change eventually due to its inability to self-reflect and gain any form of stability from itself. The strict linear mentality "of shooting off into the darkness and see what we can find approach" will eventually be met with another form of linearism as "the wall".
Let's take it from an historical perspective: all explorers eventually reached their limits in exploring an area and eventually had to return home before they could go elsewhere and find someplace "new" to explore. How is this, metaphorically speaking, any different than the nature of science today?
I am of the opinion that the science will not disappear, however the nature of what constitutes it will shift from a strict emphasis on finite materialism to a mixture of empiricism and metaphysics. Science is strictly "observation", and the current model of observation we employ offers no self-reflective capability through metaphysics to give it any form of stability.
Previous forms of metaphysics were strict "self-reflection" with little to no reflection on the environment itself.
Modern science fundamentally has to change eventually due to its inability to self-reflect and gain any form of stability from itself. The strict linear mentality "of shooting off into the darkness and see what we can find approach" will eventually be met with another form of linearism as "the wall".
Let's take it from an historical perspective: all explorers eventually reached their limits in exploring an area and eventually had to return home before they could go elsewhere and find someplace "new" to explore. How is this, metaphorically speaking, any different than the nature of science today?
Re: Is Science Going To End?
The faster science advances the sooner it will merge back into philosophy. Science will retreat before the sanctum sanctorum of any final mystery while philosophy will keep asking "what does it all mean?" Understanding the WHY of something at that level remains separate from its WHEREFORE allowing philosophy to continue beyond science but only if we ourselves last long enough to have accomplished that penultimate act of knowing. If science ever concludes as theorized, philosophy may create its own now unimagined versions of a cosmic Glass Bead Game.
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Re: Is Science Going To End?
Dubious wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:22 pm The faster science advances the sooner it will merge back into philosophy. Science will retreat before the sanctum sanctorum of any final mystery while philosophy will keep asking "what does it all mean?" Understanding the WHY of something at that level remains separate from its WHEREFORE allowing philosophy to continue beyond science but only if we ourselves last long enough to have accomplished that penultimate act of knowing. If science ever concludes as theorized, philosophy may create its own now unimagined versions of a cosmic Glass Bead Game.
"What does it all mean" is not a science question.
Like many you completely misunderstand what the purpose of science is and how it departed from philosophy in the first place.
Science is bound by HOW and not WHY. That is its strength.
If you have any science question that cannot be asked with the use of the word "How" then it is not necessarily a science question at all.
Give it a try!
I'll take the Pepsi challenge on that one.
Re: Is Science Going To End?
Thank you for the lecture!Hobbes' Choice wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:43 pmDubious wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:22 pm The faster science advances the sooner it will merge back into philosophy. Science will retreat before the sanctum sanctorum of any final mystery while philosophy will keep asking "what does it all mean?" Understanding the WHY of something at that level remains separate from its WHEREFORE allowing philosophy to continue beyond science but only if we ourselves last long enough to have accomplished that penultimate act of knowing. If science ever concludes as theorized, philosophy may create its own now unimagined versions of a cosmic Glass Bead Game.
"What does it all mean" is not a science question.
Like many you completely misunderstand what the purpose of science is and how it departed from philosophy in the first place.
Science is bound by HOW and not WHY. That is its strength.
If you have any science question that cannot be asked with the use of the word "How" then it is not necessarily a science question at all.
Give it a try!
I'll take the Pepsi challenge on that one.
Please note, I said, > philosophy will keep asking "what does it all mean" <
Re: Is Science Going To End?
Science won't end. Actually it is at the beginning of a quality of understanding that will verify the necessity of that dreaded G word God and serve as the foundation for the complimentary relationship between science and religion. Simone Weil explains"
I believe that one identical thought is to be found—expressed very precisely and with only slight differences of modality—in. . .Pythagoras, Plato, and the Greek Stoics. . .in the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita; in the Chinese Taoist writings and. . .Buddhism. . .in the dogmas of the Christian faith and in the writings of the greatest Christian mystics. . .I believe that this thought is the truth, and that it today requires a modern and Western form of expression. That is to say, it should be expressed through the only approximately good thing we can call our own, namely science. This is all the less difficult because it is itself the origin of science. Simone Weil….Simone Pétrement, Simone Weil: A Life, Random House, 1976, p. 488
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Re: Is Science Going To End?
BUT.Dubious wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:23 amThank you for the lecture!Hobbes' Choice wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:43 pmDubious wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:22 pm The faster science advances the sooner it will merge back into philosophy. Science will retreat before the sanctum sanctorum of any final mystery while philosophy will keep asking "what does it all mean?" Understanding the WHY of something at that level remains separate from its WHEREFORE allowing philosophy to continue beyond science but only if we ourselves last long enough to have accomplished that penultimate act of knowing. If science ever concludes as theorized, philosophy may create its own now unimagined versions of a cosmic Glass Bead Game.
"What does it all mean" is not a science question.
Like many you completely misunderstand what the purpose of science is and how it departed from philosophy in the first place.
Science is bound by HOW and not WHY. That is its strength.
If you have any science question that cannot be asked with the use of the word "How" then it is not necessarily a science question at all.
Give it a try!
I'll take the Pepsi challenge on that one.
Please note, I said, > philosophy will keep asking "what does it all mean" <
You said;"The faster science advances the sooner it will merge back into philosophy."
If you mean that, then you are suggesting the they (science and philosophy) will be one and the same. Thats why you need a lecture.
Re: Is Science Going To End?
Have you even read the article in question? The point was IF science ever gets to the point - unlikely in my view - where everything is known as far "as we can know it", science having created its virtual ending will again merge with philosophy. Why? Because the information we can extract is finite while the interpretations of philosophy are nearly infinite.Hobbes' Choice wrote: ↑Thu Oct 12, 2017 10:31 pmBUT.Dubious wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:23 amThank you for the lecture!Hobbes' Choice wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:43 pm
"What does it all mean" is not a science question.
Like many you completely misunderstand what the purpose of science is and how it departed from philosophy in the first place.
Science is bound by HOW and not WHY. That is its strength.
If you have any science question that cannot be asked with the use of the word "How" then it is not necessarily a science question at all.
Give it a try!
I'll take the Pepsi challenge on that one.
Please note, I said, > philosophy will keep asking "what does it all mean" <
You said;"The faster science advances the sooner it will merge back into philosophy."
If you mean that, then you are suggesting the they (science and philosophy) will be one and the same. Thats why you need a lecture.
...AND if I do need a lecture, it wouldn't be from you!
Re: Is Science Going To End?
If science and philosophy merge it will be because science has become philosophy, not the other way around.
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Re: Is Science Going To End?
Each monumental discovery leaves less discoveries left to be discovered. Yet applications will continue to need improving. The focus of scientists may change but the need for scientific knowledge will remain if only to keep things running.
Re: Is Science Going To End?
Not quite right, Usually when something new is discovered there are more things that we realize that we don't know, we didn't know that we didn't know those things.jayjacobus wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:04 pm Each monumental discovery leaves less discoveries left to be discovered.
Re: Is Science Going To End?
_______
Humans, through the tools of science,...
(and assuming we will not destroy ourselves in the interim)
...will simply keep trudging along until we have figured out how to “indirectly” manipulate the fabric of matter in the same way that we can “directly” manipulate the fabric of our own minds.
“Tea, Earl Grey, hot”...
Oh dang, a malfunction.
As I stated in an alternate thread:
_______
Humans, through the tools of science,...
(and assuming we will not destroy ourselves in the interim)
...will simply keep trudging along until we have figured out how to “indirectly” manipulate the fabric of matter in the same way that we can “directly” manipulate the fabric of our own minds.
“Tea, Earl Grey, hot”...
Oh dang, a malfunction.
As I stated in an alternate thread:
And that will no doubt be an endless endeavor for science (not to mention the questions that arise as to why reality lends itself to such control).seeds wrote: I believe that as we continue to advance our understanding of the quantum realm, we will eventually be able to control electrons in three-dimensions as easily as the wizards at Pixar or DreamWorks control them now in two-dimensions.
_______
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Re: Is Science Going To End?
Okay Captain Picard.seeds wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2017 7:28 pm _______
Humans, through the tools of science,...
(and assuming we will not destroy ourselves in the interim)
...will simply keep trudging along until we have figured out how to “indirectly” manipulate the fabric of matter in the same way that we can “directly” manipulate the fabric of our own minds.
“Tea, Earl Grey, hot”...
Oh dang, a malfunction.
As I stated in an alternate thread:
And that will no doubt be an endless endeavor for science (not to mention the questions that arise as to why reality lends itself to such control).seeds wrote: I believe that as we continue to advance our understanding of the quantum realm, we will eventually be able to control electrons in three-dimensions as easily as the wizards at Pixar or DreamWorks control them now in two-dimensions.
_______
PhilX