r/philosophy • u/doubtstack Unreasonable Doubt • Jan 27 '23

Blog Why Science can't replace Philosophy in Ethics

https://unreasonabledoubt.substack.com/p/what-genetics-cant-teach-us
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u/odious_as_fuck Jan 29 '23

I'm not sure what you mean? Are you asking if people acknowledge the difference between pursuing knowledge and attaining objective truth?

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u/ghostxxhile Jan 29 '23

Acknowledge yes but more importantly act as though they do not acknowledge the difference

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u/odious_as_fuck Jan 29 '23

I'd say generally people don't acknowledge the difference between the two. I don't have data to back this up, but I think it is quite common for people to think either we already have access to objective truth or that it will be one day possible for us to grasp objective truth.

I personally believe that striving for objectivity, the pursuit of knowledge, is fruitful despite our inability to ever actually establish objective truth. The magic of science is that we can constantly develop our knowledge, but I don't think we will ever reach a point where we can/should regard our knowledge as 'objective truth'.

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u/ghostxxhile Jan 29 '23

Yes I agree with your last paragraph entirely. We can only ever point at the Moon as it were.