What is the connection between physics and philosophy?

5 Answers

Not that it contradicts Georgy Kharitonov, who gave an excellent answer, but to show the problem from another angle, I will add.

If philosophy is the trunk of a tree, then other sciences can be considered not as the crown on it, but also as the roots that nourish it. In” Dialectics of Nature ” by F.Engels perfectly illustrated how philosophy generalizes the experience of various sciences, takes it in, and deduces from it the most general laws of the universe.

That is, this connection works both ways. Physics provides philosophy with material for generalization and synthesis. Further, philosophy “digests” the knowledge of various sciences, checks them with its own laws, clarifies its own concepts and laws. And then it gives physics and other sciences the tools, as already shown in George's answer, for further knowledge, for seeing processes and phenomena in their development.

Science, and physics in particular, has grown out of philosophy, which is not itself a science.

After modern science has developed an arsenal of principles and methods for obtaining practically applicable knowledge, philosophy has only a memorial role left.

To think that a philosopher who has not studied physics is able to understand their deep meaning by reflecting on the states caused by the sound of physical terms without mastering the necessary mathematical apparatus and working for many years on its correct application in setting and solving problems of interpreting observed data is the height of naivety.

Now, in order to reach the level of philosophical understanding of reality, it is necessary to do a titanic work on formalizing, solving and interpreting the observed and measured phenomena. And to do this, you also need to have the intellectual and strong-willed abilities to spend years learning the most complex mathematics and methods of applying it to the study of what can be tested.

There is no other way.

Philosophy, as it has come down to us, allows humanity to have a panoramic view of science, starting with its most compelling results. Physics is its main source, demonstrating that philosophy, if it leans towards truth, must first turn to the methods and results of physics.

Philosophy is no longer needed. This is a relic of the past. Fundamental physics is a modern trend. It already includes philosophy as an integral part.

Philosophers will be offended, but the field of their traditional interests is increasingly interested in physicists, and they give more concrete results than philosophers.�

Compare what Hegel or Kant gave us with what Dirac, Pauli, or Einstein left us?

Physicists, for example, have determined the age of the universe to within a fraction of a percent and are now speculating about what happened before! Amazing!!

What do philosophers do? What is left of the philosophers? Almost everything is sorted out by physicists. The only unresolved issue is consciousness. Modern philosophers cling only to it.

But this is a completely physical issue too!!! I'll tell you why later)

Banal: philosophy is the trunk of the tree of sciences, the crown of which is formed by other sciences, including physics. Philosophy develops the basic principles of mastering reality, including the principles of mastering reality in the framework of physics. For example, cognition is the mastering of reality.�In the natural sciences, there are special rules or principles that allow you to avoid mistakes and reach your intended goal much faster. Among these rules include: the principles of selection, optimality, reductionism, paradoxes as the driving force of science, the principle of causality, check on the experience; the principle of observability, which played a huge role in the development of physics of the XX century; the correspondence principle, which reflects the continuity of science; principles of symmetry, reflecting the beauty of nature; principles of optimality, the principles or rules of selection etc.�

Contradiction is the criterion of truth, and the absence of contradiction is the criterion of error. (G. Hegel on the paradox)

Claude A. Helvetius: “the mind ends where common sense begins “(soundness of observation). “Where feeling begins, science ends.”

“Clarity and evidence are so inherent in truth that many people even confuse them” (C).” Clarity and evidence are so inherent in truth that many people take any clarity for truth ” (C).

“Here, according to a sound observation of the clarity and evidence of the sun's passage through the sky during the day from sunrise to sunset, and after the same period of time, the appearance of the sun again in the east, can lead and led to the conclusion that the Sun rotates around the Earth. But such evidence, clarity and sound judgment had to be abandoned in favor of the opposite-the heliocentric structure of the planetary system.”