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Interview

David Papineau

To whet your appetite for our forthcoming Round Table debate on science and philosophy, Rick Lewis put a few questions to Professor David Papineau.

David Papineau is a prominent philosopher of science who is about to publish a cartoon book called Introducing Consciousness (Icon Books)

Professor Papineau, as ways of understanding the world, are philosophy and science incompatible?

They scarcely could be, could they? I take it that both philosophy and science are after truth. And truths can’t be inconsistent with each other. Of course, not all claims made by philosophers, or by scientists, are in fact true. But that is just to say that there is bad philosophy and bad science. The good bits, being true, must be compatible.

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