Philosophy: Discipline of the Disciplines

Special scientists have two options (but just one choice):

(i) either they give an account of the philosophical presuppositions with which they work - in which case they operate with a philosophical view of reality, or (ii) implicitly (and uncritically) proceed from one or another philosophical view of reality - in which case they are the victims of a philosophical view (page 59).

"...Precisely because it is impossible to dispense with a philosophy of nature, even present natural science adopts a philosophy of nature. But since it has censored and removed this philosophy at a conscious level, very often reduces itself to using an implicit one, that results from scattered items, is usually unreflected and, practically, is that which was contained in the science of past times but is now insufficient" (Agazzi, 2001:11).

"We should have philosophers trained as philosophers, as rigorously as possible, and at the same time audacious philosophers who cross the borders and discover new connections, new fields, not only interdisciplinary researches but themes that are not even interdisciplinary" (Derrida, 1997:7).

"Philosophical reflection must begin with the analysis of concepts we use; for these provide the frame of reference and determine the direction our inquiry will take" (Von Bertalanffy, 1966:116).

Author:

D.F.M. Strauss was Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein, South Africa) and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities (1998-2001). He is the General Editor of the Collected Works of the Dutch legal scholar and philosopher, Herman Dooyeweerd, and is one of the five Outstanding Professors at the University of the Free State. Apart from 15 independent publications, 36 international conference papers and 20 contributions to multi-author works, he has published more than 230 articles in national and international journals, spread over 12 different scientific subject areas. In 2006 his work on the philosophical foundations of the modern natural sciences appeared in German with Peter Lang Publishers. In 1989 he received the Stals Prize for Philosophy and in 2008 the N.P. Van Wyk Louw Prize from the South African Academy of Art and Science.

Specifications:

Format: Paperback
Page Count: 699
ISBN-13: 978-0-88815-262-6
Size: 15.24 x 4.01 x 22.86 cm
Published: 2021