Comments on the article ”The Consolation of Philosophy” of Lawrence M. Krauss in Scientific American, April 28, 2012 (an update by the author of ”A Universe from Nothing” on his thoughts, as a theoretical physicist, about the value of the discipline of philosophy).
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I believe that the recent discoveries with the James Webb Telescope perfectly confirm what I said in 2012 about physics and that Mr. Lawrence M. Krauss should now write an article about the consolation of physics.
°First Comment:
Is a typical example of arrogance and lack of reverence, not only for philosophy, but also for physics.
Source of misunderstanding is that physics and philosophy are placed in two different epistemological perspectives.
Epistemological problem in physics is: ”What we know?” Epistemological problem in philosophy is: ”How do we know?”
Knowledge in physics is positive.
Knowledge in philosophy is apophatic (ie critical, as Kant might say).
Physician, usually, thinks he knows something.
Philosopher says: What physicist ”knows” is just what he ”imagines there is”, judging by the impressions he receives in the experience. And this situation will always remain unchanged, as many devices will interpose between himself and the measured objects.
Physical reality (thing itself, such as Kant said) will always remain hidden from physicist. That is, if you will, the epistemological paradox of scientific knowledge.
Knowledge in physics is just a hermeneutics of empirical experience. That is what the philosopher knows with certainty.
When Bohr says ”It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out about nature. Physics concerns what we can say about nature” he is a philosopher, in more authentic sense of the word, not a physicist, in the classic sense of the word.
To be understood, I do not conceive this ”epistemological conflict” as a conflict between two professions, but between two perspectives of thought, which, as Kant showed, can be reconciled when viewed in a critical perspective. I marvel that they can discuss today epistemology without mention no word about Kant – the philosopher who received the ultimate confirmation just by the appearance of quantum mechanics and relativity theory.
The consolation of physics is that, unlike philosophy, it has a few extra toys and…”
Marcel Chelba – The Consolation of Philosophy? Kantinomus Verlag, Tübingen, 2023
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