Re: What should schools teach?

Bill Hamilton (hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com)
Thu, 9 May 1996 12:38:55 -0400

I wrote:
>"I see no reason for keeping philosophical arguments out of the
>science curriculum, and many for including them. However, philosophy
>should be clearly labelled as philosophy. I would go so far as to
>say that I'd favor requiring all degree candidates in science fields
>to take a sequence of courses in philosophy of science."
>
David Tyler wrote

>The problem here, Bill, is that there are no distinct compartments
>labelled "science" and "philosophy".

I didn't mean to suggest that. Rather, I would argue that you can't teach
a discipline without teaching the philosophy that goes with it. The
philosophy of a discipline causes practitioners to approach problems in
certain ways. If the philosophical presuppositions aren't taught, the
rationale those approaches -- why and when they are selected -- will not be
very accessible to the students, They will be flying blind -- making
choices based on a philosophy they don't understand and are laregly unaware
of.

>Rather, philosophy provides the
>foundations on which science is built.

Agreed.

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