The new philosophy of science [1929d]

Hans Reichenbach

pp. 258-260

in: Maria Reichenbach, Robert S. Cohen (eds), Selected writings 1909–1953, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

It is the lot of philosophy not to enjoy, as do other sciences, a more or less independent existence, but to grow and flourish in tandem with the development of the special sciences. Never has there existed philosophical investigation "as such", resolving philosophical problems through its own springs of knowledge during periods of stagnation in the sciences. Rather, philosophical problems are not seen with all their ramifications, philosophical puzzles not really thoroughly thought out, until investigations in the individual sciences have encompassed a broad range of knowledge and the process of learning has reached a certain maturity, which forms the only possible basis for philosophical activity. We need only recall the philosophy of Plato, which evolved out of a serious concern for mathematics, or the grand system of Kant, which, while purporting to be a system of pure reason, actually represents a thoroughgoing reworking of the mathematical physics of the eighteenth century, which accounts for its overwhelming importance.

Cited authors

Kant Immanuel

Plato