Maxwell, Nicholas (2012) In Praise of Natural Philosophy: A Revolution for Thought and Life. Philosophia, 40 (4). pp. 705-715.

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Abstract

Modern science began as natural philosophy. In the time of Newton, what we call science and philosophy today – the disparate endeavours – formed one mutually interacting, integrated endeavour of natural philosophy: to improve our knowledge and understanding of the universe, and to improve our understanding of ourselves as a part of it. Profound, indeed unprecedented discoveries were made. But then natural philosophy died. It split into science on the one hand, and philosophy on the other. This happened during the 18th and 19th centuries, and the split is now built into our intellectual landscape. But the two fragments, science and philosophy, are defective shadows of the glorious unified endeavour of natural philosophy. Rigour, sheer intellectual good sense and decisive argument demand that we put the two together again, and rediscover the immense merits of the integrated enterprise of natural philosophy. This requires an intellectual revolution, with dramatic implications for how we understand our world, how we understand and do science, and how we understand and do philosophy. There are dramatic implications, too, for education, and for the entire academic endeavour, and its capacity to help us discover how to tackle more successfully our immense global problems.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Maxwell, Nicholas nicholas.maxwell@ucl.ac.uk
Keywords:	Natural Philosophy; Science; Philosophy; Scientific Revolution; Isaac Newton; The Enlightenment; Failures of Philosophy; Intellectual Revolution; Metaphysics of Science
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Theory Change General Issues > Values In Science
Depositing User:	Nicholas Maxwell
Date Deposited:	25 Feb 2017 16:15
Last Modified:	25 Feb 2017 16:15
Item ID:	12857
Journal or Publication Title:	Philosophia
Publisher:	Springer
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Theory Change General Issues > Values In Science
Date:	2012
Page Range:	pp. 705-715
Volume:	40
Number:	4
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12857

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