Quartet of Modern World

Recently, I read an essay by James Read, a philosopher of physics at Oxford, in Aeon magazine.

The title of the essay is Why Philosophy of Physics?

It is a good read, and addresses a pertinent question of highlighting the role of philosophy of physics within the larger umbrella of physics as a discipline and human endeavor. Although the viewpoint and examples are mainly from theoretical physics, it makes a good case for the philosophy of physics.

Below are my thoughts:

I would add that both theoretical and experimental approaches to physics do raise philosophical questions that may be complementary, and in certain cases, necessary, to get a complete picture of the underlying physics.

I would go further and add that the foundations and approaches to engineering and its philosophy cannot be fully appreciated without grasping the underlying physics. This thought can be extrapolated to include mathematics, chemistry and biology too.

Engineering beautifully extracts knowledge from all the branches of science and puts them into use in the noisy world. By interacting with the external noise, it showcases the resilience and limitations of the foundational principles. Thus, it further motivates philosophical questions that will have to be addressed, going back to the first principles of science.

In that sense, science, technology, and philosophy form a trinity of ideas, each feeding the other, and sometimes creating a sum that is greater than its parts. To capture this evolution, we need the tools of history and hence a case for the history of science.

Together with history and philosophy of science, science and technology make an essential quartet. Our modern world stands on this quartet.