Philosophy: Discipline of the Discipline

by D.F.M. Strauss

Special scientists have two options (but just one choice):

(i) either they give an account of the philosophical presuppositions with which they work - in which case they operate with a philosophical view of reality, or (ii) implicitly (and uncritically) proceed from one or another philosophical view of reality - in which case they are the victims of a philosophical view (page 59).

"...Precisely because it is impossible to dispense with a philosophy of nature, even present natural science adopts a philosophy of nature. But since it has censored and removed this philosophy at a conscious level, very often reduces itself to using an implicit one, that results from scattered items, is usually unreflected and, practically, is that which was contained in the science of past times but is now insufficient" (Agazzi, 2001:11).

"We should have philosophers trained as philosophers, as rigorously as possible, and at the same time audacious philosophers who cross the borders and discover new connections, new fields, not only interdisciplinary researches but themes that are not even interdisciplinary" (Derrida, 1997:7).

"Philosophical reflection must begin with the analysis of concepts we use; for these provide the frame of reference and determine the direction our inquiry will take" (Von Bertalanffy, 1966:116).