Science vs. Philosophy? How about both?

None other than the great Neil deGrasse Tyson has more than once expressed public disdain for Philosophy (see ""Why Does Neil deGrasse Tyson Hate Philosophy?). I respect and love pretty much everthing he has done and written, but I respectfully disagree with his position on philosophy.

Philosophy is still relevant. Science, as important and awesome as it is, does not, and cannot, address normative issues. There is no way to get to what we 'ought' to do, with science. What is right and what is wrong, in the area of human values, cannot be addressed by science. This is the domain of Philosophy.

Science matters. The rules and findings of science reinforce philosophy. Science affirms Aristotelian philosophy - that the natural world is knowable and that man has the ability to understand and know it. Philosophy matters!

Sadly, [and I think this is what Mr. Tyson is thinking of when he dismisses philosophy] most modern 'philosophy' is a mess. Descarte started the disaster by separating reason from the senses; Spinoza & Liebniz rejected that the senses contribute to knowledge; Locke & Hume denied reason and believed all knowledge was due to the senses; Kant, who attempted a synthesis of both, ended up believing that existence cannot be known in itself. Nietzsche's "will to power" as the ruling principle of all life, and his idea that life on earth has an absolute value is only one absurd 'conclusion" that stems from the forgoing philosophies. They all took philosophy on a roller coaster ride that set philosophy back centuries. Aristotelianism is the only philosophy to withstand the ages.

Aristotle, considered by many to the greatest mind the world has ever known, should be our starting point. He didn't get everything right but he put us on the right path.

Many of the errors in Philosophy are the result of "an attitude of antagonism toward or even contempt for the past - for the achievements of those who have come before." Contemporary philosophers are, for the most part, vastly ignorant of the great works of philosophical tradition prior to the 17th century." Going back to the "distinctions, insights, and formulations explicitly achieved in the tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas" [and others who have followed in this tradition], and identifying and correcting those errors has finally given us an objective philosophy based in reality that offers real world" value.

Questions of logic, critical thinking, and epistemology are also not always answered by science.

Sources: works by Mortimer J. Adler, especially "Little Errors in the Beginning" and "Six Great Ideas" (mostly derived from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas and what is now classified as Philosophical (or Classical) Realism. (see also: Philosophical realism - Wikipedia))