"The accident of where one is born is just that, an accident; any human being might have been born in any nation"
Martha Nussbaum, 'Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism' in For Love of Country (Beacon Press, 2002)

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Philosophy and Science

There's an interesting post (as well as a good follow-up discussion) on Public Reason from Colin Farrelly arguing for stronger links between philosophy and science. 

To summarise very briefly, he argues that philosophers (especially moral and political philosophers) should be paying much more attention to developments in science and technology, rather than spending all of their time worrying about abstract ideas. I'd agree broadly with his general contention, although I think the relationship should work both ways, in that moral and political philosophy has important implications for science, as well as science having implications for philosophy. In particular, philosophy can and should guide our interpretation of scientific discovery. We must be wary of assuming too much about the implications of scientific investigation. Philosophy has an important role to play here.  

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