Context: Einstein got it – philosophy and science do go hand in hand
A nice, if surprisingly concise, opinion piece. I agree, concerning not merely the significance of philosophy but also of the importance of a thinker (from any field of endeavour) being able and willing to reassess their foundational assumptions and question the conceptual framework within which they work.
One of the things that may have alienated large swathes of people from science and the scientific method is its parochial claim to a superior and objective neutrality. Facts may remain factual and truths may remain true but it is utterly implausible to entirely extricate scientific practice and interpretation from the value-laden cultural and historical moment(s) within which it exists.
A (perceived) ethical void in the bare-metal mechanisms of pure mathematical and statistical Reason generates that ideological and cultural reflex we see all around us as intransigent denial of demonstrable and provable facts. Is it that our world has become so partisan and siloed that a self-conscious acknowledgement of human fallibility is inadmissible into the domain of pure facts when it itself is surely the very first fact of all ?
