Can science uncover reality? | Lisa Randall and Hilary Lawson go head to head | Philosophy at war
126Can science uncover the nature of reality? | Lisa Randall and Hilary Lawson go head to head
Theoretical physicist Lisa Randall challenges post-postmodern philosopher Hilary Lawson on the nature of reality and the ability to understand it.
This excerpt is from the debate 'Philosophy at war,' which took place at our HowTheLightGetsIn festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. Watch the full debate at https://iai.tv/video/philosophy-at-war?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description
For more than a century, a war of ideas has been taking place. One side regards science as the arbiter of all knowledge. Among their ranks many analytic philosophers including Bertrand Russell, "whatever science cannot discover, mankind cannot know". The other side, including continental philosophies such as existentialism and postmodernism, more commonly see philosophy as the ultimate arbiter. 'Science is the new religion' argued Heidegger. 'Science ... is largely useless for philosophical purposes' argued Rorty.
Might philosophy and science be two sides of the same coin and would we be better to see scientists as a type of philosopher, once called natural philosophers, and philosophers a type of scientist, engaged with reality, consciousness, language and society? Or is the divide fundamental, and science, its method and its goals of no relevance to philosophy and vice versa? Then again, should we give no special status to either, and place them alongside the many other ways of making sense of the world?
#LisaRandall #HilaryLawsonClosure #UncoveringReality
Lisa Randall is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science on the physics faculty of Harvard University. She was included in the list of Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People' of 2007 and was featured in Newsweek's 'Who's Next in 2006' as 'one of the most promising theoretical physicists of her generation.'
Randall has spent most her career exploring the nature of the universe and becoming a world leading expert on particle physics and cosmology. She is the author of Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space and Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The stounding Interconnectedness of the Universe.
Hilary Lawson is an English philosopher and founder of the Institute of Art and Ideas. His theory of "closure" puts forward a non-realist metaphysics arguing that people close the openness of the world with thought and language.
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