PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

MY ASSIMILATION OF PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Life is a great mystery and this mystery cannot be explained or understood by any scientific means in the human realm. Everything here is determined by the aspect of choice and interest. By our responsible freedom we have to find meaning in whatever circumstances we are in. So it is important for us to have the humility to accept our weaknesses and give meaning to our life in the context of human life and dignity in all its mysterious presence. Philosophy in all its wisdom and understanding cannot solve the mystery questions, what we can say is only a kind of an act of surrender to whatever happens in nature and in the human history. Human mind is very creative and active not only now but as always. Every step that was taken to know the things of the celestial and terrestrial worlds by the genius minds and philosophies fill us with a sense of pride in human race and human existence but this innovations should not lead us to be individualistic and for personal gains. They should help us to transcend beyond our selfishness and self-centeredness so that the benefit should be of the whole world. I still admire the minds of those who found everything and yet had a sense of sharing with all so that the world may come to know of its ignorance and move towards the true light of knowledge.

As a philosopher and religious leader I feel my main task should be to unfold the very nature of life in all its complications and ponder over the daily life situations of mine and also of people and give an appropriate solution to the happenings in society. It is important to realize that I cannot change the history but at least I can make the better future and better world to live in for all, where human life is taken to be just by chance and where dignity is valued only in terms of money and riches and wisdom is considered in terms of P.hds. I feel my call in philosophy is science would be to give dignity to people whom I meet and serve not minding the rich and the poor. And my whole disposition should be an ongoing search for the truth and knowledge to create a happy world where everybody’s needs are taken care of, where no one is discriminated in terms of colour and caste, where scientists and philosophers come together to solve the urgent needs like poverty, hunger and environmental problems.

It is also an important call for me to encourage people to move towards ‘Being more rather than Having more’. We in our Indian context have tremendous resources in terms of natural and human power but we are not in a position to exhibit our talents and energy in a scientific way towards the human growth in utilizing them due to our faulty education and our complacency. We are busy in making the atomic bombs rather than feeding those children who die everyday of hunger and those that are under malnutrition. So prophetic call for us today is to enhance life and celebrate life without competing with other nations in terms of development and advancement. I think it is time for us to say a big ‘yes’ to life in all its fullness and direct philosophy and science for this cause. Only then we can boast of our advancement and our civilization.

Juje Monteiro

Philosophy of Science

My understanding of Philosophy of Science

Philosophy of science according to me is going beyond the mere scientific observation of matter. It deals with the things which cannot be explained by scientific methods. In the post-modern era very often science tries to monopolize in everything. People look at the things and believe which are scientifically explained but beyond that no one asks questions. Philosophy of science ask question which are beyond scientific explanation.

Before the course of philosophy of science I have never asked a question like who created atom. Science has given the theory that everything is made of atom. But it has not asked who made atom? Philosophy of science helped me to think critically with regard to things that I can see in my daily life. Though science may try to prove some kind of superiority with regard to the existing things but it has not explained the mystery which lies in each matter. Science may say that there is nothing so called supper natural law. It may try to prove things through its own scientific methods but often many things remained unsolved. But philosophy of science try to explain what science is not able to explain. Scientist often uses terms like causality, law, theory etc. But in that several questions are not answered. For instance, what is meant by saying that event is the cause of another? Well this is what philosophy of science tries to explain to the people.

There are lots of philosophical issues in science. Science overlooks mystery questions. Many a time people tend to believe the theory of science but fail to look beyond the science theory. As a result they become narrow mindedness. Philosophy of science almost deals with all the mystery questions of science. It gives lot of meaning to the people which science can’t give. Therefore philosophy of science is the attempt to understand the meaning, method, and logical structure of science. Philosophy of science deals with the fundamental question which people are looking for the years in the life journey? Science does not have all the answers to provide how the existence has taken place. But philosophy of science helps us to think that there is something which has created the universe. Though science has been trying to provide through its scientific methods but not successful. As we all know that science has been dealing with the structure of each thing. What God has created, science try to explain it. Very often people are misled with the scientific theory. They think that scientific theory is the final answer to everything. But it is not. We should be able to go beyond the structure of things. This is what philosophy of science deals with. It tries to explain how things are interlinked to each other.

I found something beautiful in philosophy of science. That is the dealing with mystery question of science. It really enlightened me. We all of us are not aware of this. Hence from generation onwards many of us don’t ask the real questions. It is just not enough to remain passive in the modern era. With changing times we should be able to deal with the unanswered question about science. Therefore, philosophy of science helped me to think critically about science. It has played very important role in my intellectual aspects. Lot more things which science did not give me answer was given by the philosophy of science. In this technological world philosophy of science is required to build bridges between man and science.

Romio Brahma