Science and Philosophy: Two Sides of the Same Coin
I recently graduated from my undergraduate studies at the University of Cincinnati. While there, I studied three things primarily: a major in mechanical engineering, and minors in astrophysics and philosophy.
I have to admit, it was definitely always fun to introduce myself to new people with that combination. There would inevitably be a mixture of reactions, some commenting on my perceived intelligence (admittedly giving me a bit of an ego boost), others confused on how these fields of study relate, and rarely, there would be people who understood perfectly why I chose as I did. Most often, it was a combination of the first two, and I would be tasked with explaining my thought process to them.
The first two relate quite well actually, and didn’t take much explaining. The study of the basic physics of engineering (as mechanical engineering is basically applied physics and design, NOT fixing cars!) plus the study of space equals aerospace engineering (AE). In fact, AE is what I will be studying for my PhD starting in August. But the final thing was the stumper for many, most of whom hadn’t studied either philosophy or engineering. Even now, I’ve found that some people think that engineering is just a bunch of nerds with slide rules. (Honestly, we are a bunch of nerds, but now we have MATLAB and C++! Many jokes intended here ;) )
However, what they, and many people don’t know about these fields is the true, basic, underlying principle of both. Engineering is a subset of science, simply with a greater focus on practical application and design.
What science and philosophy have in common is the desire to satisfy our underlying curiosities we have as humans, and our desire to make sense of the world around us in order to improve it.
Although these two fields go about it in two very different ways, they both possess their own logic. Philosophy may go about it in the form of truth tables (also seen in computer logic and math), premises and conclusions, and thought experiments, but rationality is the underlying factor there. Writing and intelligent discussion may be the way to further these discussions, rather than experiments with carefully defined variables, but it doesn’t make it any else valid. It may not be foolproof, but any idea that does not follow logically from asserted statements needs to be critically analyzed and thrown out. Sound similar to anything? Oh, yeah, the scientific method!
As a short summary, the scientific method is a way of making sense of the world through careful analysis and variable isolation. The explanation found here does a much better job of explaining it than I would off of the top of my head. Overall, create an hypothesis based on an observation, create an experiment with limited variables based on that, and then see what the results of the experiment are. If something went wrong, or you have more questions, rinse and repeat!
Furthermore, many early philosophers were also scientists or engineers!
Granted, this was back in the days when the breadth of human knowledge was much more limited, but this doesn’t take away from most of their achievements. This expansive list includes Aristotle, who is famous for his study of virtue ethics, as well as the classification system biology is built on. Other notables include Pythagoras (yes, the same one who did the theorem!), Leucippus (who theorized the existence of atoms, meaning the “indivisible particle” in Greek — even though we now know they are divisible), and Thales, who predicted a solar eclipse.
One last notable point here: ethics, a subset of philosophy that is primarily concerned with doing the objective “right thing” in any given situation, is an area of legal concern within all STEM fields. If a scientist is found to be acting unethically, it could be grounds for suspension or even dismissal, depending on the infraction. Although ethics is rarely straightforward, in most cases one path is clearly valued over the other. Honesty is also a core value of ethics, and dishonest scientists threaten the effectiveness of the scientific method.
I could go all day with this, but there are many books relating the need for science and philosophy to be intertwined that you can easily find at your local library! Here are a couple more links for quick reading on this topic:
Zoe Lee is a space engineer with too many hobbies, due to her insatiable curiosity. Other than writing on Medium and her travel blog (starryeyestravel.com), she loves reading, singing, crafting/Etsy, learning languages, all things space and science, cultural exchange, libertarianism, and philosophy! If you’d like to become email buddies, please sign up here!