DOES SCIENCE NEED PHILOSOPHY?

Feynman is credited as saying that “Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds”. So perhaps no other philosophical subject – ethics, logic or the philosophy of language – is of any interest to scientists as scientists. On the other hand, Einstein believed in “the significance and educational value of methodology as well as history and philosophy of science”. He believed this was important to scientists’ research. Who is right, Feynman or Einstein? Not surprisingly, I argue that Einstein is right. In order to do that, the nature of both philosophy and science must be clarified. I will then argue that philosophy is of value to scientists not just for methodological reasons, as Einstein argues, but also for theoretical reasons