Philosophy, Not Science

Useful knowledge does not need Sciencism.

Part of our problem is we have this one word “science” to describe radically different fields. There is a massive gulf between the science of something like Physics and the science of Psychology.

scientific research is a tool for epistemology. It’s an attempt to create a framework for claiming what we know and do not know. Like most tools, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Its effectiveness depends on the artisan using it and the craft they’re using it on.

We can see a clear improvement in our understanding of Physics over time as the tools of science and engineering have been applied to it. Can we say the same for psychology?...We would hope that disciplines within psychology would use the tools of science to give us that improved understanding compared to Aristotle’s day, but you’d have a hard time... See more