Science as a Part of Philosophy

Most people today think that science and philosophy are two different things. They are not. Science is a branch of philosophy.

Historical Context

Before the 19th century, this claim would have gone largely unchallenged. Before this time, what we now call science was known as natural philosophy—clearly understood as a branch of philosophy rather than something separate and distinct.

The breach came when science became more and more confident in its findings, while philosophy in general still dealt with reasonable speculation.

Rise of Specialization

As natural philosophy developed its own methods and specializations, it made sense to have specialists in that branch of philosophy. Scientists are specialists in natural philosophy.

But many of these specialists were not happy being associated with philosophy, which they saw as making little or no progress, because they made the mistake of equating the scientific pursuit of knowledge about nature with the philosophical pursuit of wisdom. They’re complementary, but they’re not the same.

The Rebranding

So the specialists in natural philosophy effectively rebranded their branch of philosophy as science, and then began to distance themselves from philosophy—even though their entire foundation remained philosophical.

The simple fact is that you cannot derive the scientific method from the scientific method. The scientific method itself arises from philosophical inquiry. It was philosophy that developed the scientific method. Once the method was developed, philosophers could arrive at a better and more secure understanding of the world.

Enduring Philosophical Identity

But at no time did science cease to be a branch of philosophy. It always has been and always will be. The mere fact that a method developed within philosophy is successful in giving us reliable results does not make that branch of philosophy cease to be a branch of philosophy. It doesn’t lose its belonging to philosophy just because it succeeds. It simply means that philosophy has developed a fairly trustworthy method of studying a particular domain.

Philosophy, however, must take into consideration all of reality in order to construct its worldviews. Philosophy is about helping us live wisely in the world. To do that, we must understand the world in which we live, who and what we are, our purpose and place, and how we ought to relate to one another.

Call for Reintegration

My point is that science is a branch of philosophy, and it is a branch that philosophers need to reintegrate into their philosophical systems. The success of a philosophical system depends on its correspondence with the nature of reality, and science is our best current understanding of natural reality.