Philosophy and science
A warm summer night, the Aegean coast, Thales the first “academic” of Greece, wanders the streets of Miletus, gazing at the night sky. Suddenly, as he stumbles on a rock and nearly falls, an old woman remarks, “How can you understand what the heavens are saying if you can’t see what’s beneath your feet?”
This wasn’t the first time Thales was told that philosophy lacked practical utility and did nothing to improve his financial situation. “Simply thinking won’t make you rich,” people said.
Determined to prove the opposite, Thales began observing weather patterns in Ionia. During one particular winter, he predicted a bountiful olive harvest in the coming summer. Acting on this insight, he rented all the olive presses in Miletus and the neighboring city during the low-demand winter at a low cost. When summer arrived and olive production soared, the demand for olive presses multiplied. Thales leased them at much higher rates, earning a substantial profit.
Through this, Thales demonstrated that philosophers could achieve wealth if they desired, but wealth itself was not their primary goal.
This ancient anecdote underscores the long-standing question of the practical relevance of philosophy in daily life—a question that has become even more pressing in modern times, especially with the rapid advancement of science.
Philosophy has long stood as the foundation of science, which is why the earliest scientists were called natural philosophers. This connection endured until the 19th century when science formally separated from philosophy. The result was a significant narrowing of philosophy’s domain, as science claimed vast territories of inquiry.
Today, the cosmos is no longer studied by philosophers as it was a thousand years ago. Cosmologists study the universe, physicists study nature, and biologists study life. As physicist Sander Bias notes, – many believe, rightly or wrongly, that the ideas of modern philosophers who are not scientists are irrelevant and can be easily ignored.
Some even argue that philosophy is dead. Stephen Hawking declared: “We each exist for but 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 worrying about these questions, but almost all of us worry about them some of the time.”
Despite such criticism, philosophy remains relevant to scientists. For instance, Werner Heisenberg, a Nobel laureate in physics and a key figure in modern physics, wrote of Niels Bohr: “Bohr was first and foremost a philosopher, not a physicist. Yet he understood that natural philosophy in our time is only powerful when every detail is experimentally verified.” Another Nobel laureate, Hideki Yukawa, remarked of Schrödinger: “Schrödinger had a stronger inclination towards philosophy—he was a talented physicist who wanted to engage in philosophy.”
Hawking’s assertion is not without merit. Understanding the universe now requires much more than just gazing at the heavens. One must grasp quantum mechanics, Einstein’s theories, and numerous principles of physics and chemistry.
Scientists like Lawrence Krauss and Neil deGrasse Tyson share similar views. Tyson claims that philosophy often asks too many questions, distracting scientists from studying the world.
In comparison to science, philosophy may appear to have lost its practicality. Science continually answers and absorbs philosophy’s questions, reducing its scope. Philosophy now engages with more abstract, complex, and seemingly unanswerable questions, such as the meaning of life, the existence of God, the nature of truth, and the essence of humanity.
However, philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom, and wisdom is the art of living. To think is to live, and to illuminate the mind is to illuminate life itself. Philosophy fosters wisdom, which is not merely about being a physicist or a biologist. Wisdom lies in analyzing and using knowledge correctly, seeing the truth as it is, and helping others see it.
In Conclusion.
Everyone has the right to think freely, provided their thoughts are worthy of freedom.
