The Philosophical Use and Misuse of Science |
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| Authors: | Justine Kingsbury Tim Dare |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Philosophy Programme, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, 3216, New Zealand;2. Philosophy Programme, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand |
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| Abstract: | Science is our best way of finding out about the natural world, and philosophers who write about that world ought to be sensitive to the claims of our best science. There are obstacles, however, to outsiders using science well. We think philosophers are prone to misuse science: to give undue weight to results that are untested; to highlight favorable and ignore unfavorable data; to give illegitimate weight to the authority of science; to leap from scientific premises to philosophical conclusions without spelling out their relevance; to treat mere resonance between a scientific theory and a philosophical view as empirical evidence for the philosophical view. This article identifies and illustrates some of the ways in which philosophers misuse science, explains why these pitfalls are easy to fall into, and concludes with suggestions for avoiding them. |
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| Keywords: | cherry‐picking empirical philosophy interdisciplinarity philosophical methodology philosophy science misuse of science |
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