From Science to Philosophy

The Advantages of the Collaboration between Science and Philosophy 

The cooperation between science and philosophy can lead to the following advantages in favor of human knowledge:

1-Most scientists of experimental sciences believe that philosophers generalize, so they live in a world apart from the one scientists spend their time discovering; this is why scientists sometimes consider philosophers' work as worthless.

2-By means of his experimental information, the scientist tries to analyze unities; the philosopher, on the other hand, tends to achieve comprehensive unities. Cooperation between the two can lead to even more comprehensive unities in science.

3-Due to technological advances and changes in scientific aims, science is always changing; philosophical principles, on the other hand, are fixed, and provide the best tool for quenching man's mental desire for combining. The generalizations philosophy includes can save science from falling into a scattered mess, and prevent it from becoming trapped in its own technological devices.

4-By making contact with science, philosophy can study and reconsider some of its fundamentals and principles. For example, science can help revise the law of causality and its details, thus eliminating its vagueness.

5-Science has made amazing progress in discovering some parts of nature. If these advances are put to use on the path toward human unity – which philosophy is responsible for – man can make correct use of nature, and move from "what there is" to "what there should be." Science and philosophy should join ships to solve the problems of mankind. If the scientist and the philosopher are to have stronger cooperation, they should first acknowledge each other and then follow these principles:

a)The scientist and the philosopher should both know that analyzing the components of nature for the purpose of scientific research does not damage their interrelation, for:

اگر  يک  ذرّه  را  برگيری  از جایخلل  يابـد  همه  عالـم   سـراپای

(Disturb one particle, and the harmony of the whole universe will be disturbed.)

b)Scientists should avoid statements like, "It's definitely this, and nothing else," for the universe is quite open, and man's limited senses and devices and internal ideals shouldn't let make such generalizations.

c)Scientists should accept the fact that there is a start and an end to the universe, even though science cannot verify them as observable physical phenomena. The scientist should not fall into such a superficial approach in which: 

ما ز آغاز و ز انجام  جهان بی خبـريم  اول و آخر  اين  کهنه کتاب  افتاده است

(We know nothing about the beginning and the end of this world; it seems that it is an ancient, great book whose first and last pages have been lost.)

d)The scientist should realize that his contact with facts is done through his senses and experimental devices, so he can never directly achieve contact with all the facts of the universe:

ای  خدا   بنمای  تو  هر  چيز را آن چنان که  هست  در  خدعه  سرا

(O God, Who is aware of all obvious and hidden! Reveal everything in this deceitful world as it truly is.) 

Jalal-addin Mohammad Molawi (Rumi)

e)The scientist should realize that unless he understands and acknowledges the existence of divine wisdom and philosophy in the universe, he cannot claim to have gained any – not even the slightest – knowledge of the universe, for his knowledge and sensory and mental activities are components of the universe themselves, and should be added to the components of nature. The wise human should say that:

کاشکی هستـی زبانـــی داشتــیتا  ز هستـــان  پرده ها   برداشتـی

هر چه گويی ای دم  هستــی از آنپرده ای ديگـر بر آن بستــی،  بدان

(If only the universe could speak, and would thus reveal all its secrets, for all the theorizing, imagination, reasoning and contradicting made by man about the universe cannot possibly provide him with complete knowledge about the universe, for they are merely phenomena and parts of the universe.)       Jalal-addin Mohammad Molawi 

f)The scientist and the philosopher should believe in God so that they can interpret the flow of natural laws and the movement in them.

Following the above principles can not only provide the grounds for science and philosophy to cooperate, but also make them both work together on the path of wisdom. If science can help man discover one or many components of the world inside or outside, philosophy can show us the general principles dominant over the universe. Wisdom and philosophy are able to make the human soul flourish. If science and philosophy were the two wings of a bird, wisdom would be its soul, which can take it from "what there is" to "what there should be." It is wisdom that provides man with the truly original feeling of being.

 

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