Theme: Truth

PHILOSOPHY IS DEAD? NOPE. SORRY STEPHEN.

—“Stephen Hawking, the renowned physicist, has declared that “Philosophy is dead”.

Speaking to Google’s Zeitgeist Conference in Hertfordshire, the author of ‘A Brief History of Time’ said that fundamental questions about the nature of the universe could not be resolved without hard data such as that currently being derived from the Large Hadron Collider and space research.

“Most of us don’t worry about these questions most of the time. But almost all of us must sometimes wonder: Why are we here? Where do we come from? Traditionally, these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead,” he said. “Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science. Particularly physics.”

Prof Hawking went on to claim that “Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.” He said new theories “lead us to a new and very different picture of the universe and our place in it”.

In a 40-minute speech, Prof Hawking said that the new “M Theory” of the universe was the “unified theory Einstein was hoping to find”. He compared the idea to the computer programme Google Earth, saying it was a “map” of theories, but added that a new, bigger Hadron Collider the size of the Milky Way was needed to collect more data to prove it.

“This technology is some way off,” he said, “and I don’t think even Google could afford to build it.””—

RESPONSE

1) Well, there is a difference between religion and philosophy and science. Religion=animism/anthropomorphism/anthropocentrism. Philosophy = epistemology, decidability/choice and ethics. Science = organized research. However, decidability in physical science and decidability in ‘social science’ (philosophy) are very different things.

2) —Why are we here? Where do we come from?— Is a religious not philosophical question. They are also nonsensical. If we discovered some intentional agent (a god), then we could ask why are we here, or where do we come from. But without that intentional agent, we must ask “Since we are an accident, what shall or what should we do with our lives?”

3) —philosophers have not kept up with—

Well I have to agree with the fact that philosophers have failed to integrate science into their disciplines for a wide variety of reasons. the most significant of which is that it would render most of intellectual history as error, and their methodology entirely vacuous.

That said, it is entirely possible to integrate philosophy and science. I do it every day.