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Debate

Round Table Debate: Science versus Philosophy?

Given the success of science, do we really need philosophy? Four distinguished scientists and philosophers and about 170 members of the public gathered in a London bookstore to hammer out the issues. This robust and good-humoured Round Table was the second in the series held by Philosophy Now and Philosophy For All to examine how philosophy relates to other ways of seeing the world.

The place was Waterstone’s Bookstore in London’s Piccadilly. The panel consisted of David Papineau, Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London, Mary Midgley, author and ethicist, Lewis Wolpert, Professor of Biology at University College London and Raymond Tallis, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Manchester University. The Chair was Anja Steinbauer, President of Philosophy For All.

AS The relations of different forms of knowledge to each other and what these relations and the relativity that comes with them mean to these disciplines themselves, needs to be explored: Philosophy for-itself must be different from, for instance, philosophy in the face of science. Science is the dominant form of knowledge in the world of today.

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