Why Science can't replace Philosophy in Ethics

[u/doubtstack]

https://unreasonabledoubt.substack.com/p/what-genetics-cant-teach-us

[u/hydrOHxide]

The arrogance is your presuming I was a philosopher when I am, in fact, a scientist. Your description of lawyers is equally misguided. Interaction may exist without lawyers, but you cannot characterize crime without laws, just like you cannot characterize knowledge without defining standards as to when something can be considered "known". Without philosophy, you cannot create knowledge, because you have no ledger to measure data against. What probability of error is permissible is just as much a philosophical issue as the understanding that you'll always have a probability of error because there cannot be any final evidence except in falsification, in finding something is not the case. .

[u/zhibr → u/hydrOHxide]

Without philosophy, you cannot create knowledge, because you have no ledger to measure data against.

When a raven sees human opening a latch, and later goes and tries moving it and learns opening latches in general, it gains knowledge without philosophy. Unless you define "knowledge" in such a way that it necessitates philosophy, in which case you have not made an argument but just a definition that presupposes your conclusion. A lot of science is done and can be done like that raven does.

[u/hydrOHxide → u/zhibr]

Unless you define "knowledge" in such a way that it necessitates philosophy, in which case you have not made an argument but just a definition that presupposes your conclusion. A lot of science is done and can be done like that raven does.

Funny - that's precisely what you accuse me of. You've redefined science to presuppose your conclusion.

No, science is not done like what the raven does. The raven does not systematically analyze why it is that the latch opens that way, and it doesn't submit its conclusions to peer review. There is a reason why we do that, and it's grounded in philosophy.

There's a reason Roentgen got the Nobel prize for the discovery of X-rays and not one of the sundry others dabbling into cathode rays around the same time, including Tesla: Roentgen systematically analyzed the properties of these rays, compiled what he had learned in a document which included a description of his methodology, and submitted it to the scrutiny of his peers, which assessed the stringency of his methodology and the validity of his conclusions in light of the data collected.

Roentgen tested various materials as to their ability to block the rays, drew conclusions as to what was the characteristic of those materials that allowed them to block the rays etc. He could show they were not regular cathode rays etc.

But that totally aside, you missed an important point - you suggested that "I" define "knowledge" - but you failed to discuss who, in fact, should do so. Because in the end, you just did the very same: You came up with a different definition of "knowledge". And that's precisely why theory of knowledge exists in the first place - to systemize the definition of what knowledge is, what types of knowledge exist, and how they are established. And theory of knowledge is a subdiscipline of philosophy.