Role Of Philosophy Research Articles

Philosophy as a factor of spiritual independence of Ukraine

The article examines the problems of philosophy development in Ukraine during the thirty years of independence; an attempt is made to periodize this development. It is shown that the independence of Ukraine, in addition to the state, political and economic dimensions, also contains a spiritual component associated with religious, cultural, linguistic, and ideological independence. The key here was independence from the Moscow Church and creating an autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Nevertheless, since, according to the Constitution of Ukraine, no ideology can be recognized by the state as mandatory, spiritual independence is also a secular category and presupposes worldview and philosophical independence. The article highlights several stages of the creation of philosophical independence. First, the first stage required overcoming the ideologically biased philosophy of Russian Marxism, that is, Marxism-Leninism. The second stage is the involvement of Ukrainian philosophy in the models of modern world philosophy, the assimilation of its leading trends and paradigmatic complexes. The role of translations of philosophical classics and modern philosophical literature in entering philosophy into world philosophical thought in Ukraine is also shown. Finally, the third stage is related to solving the critical problems of our time, related to globalization, ecological crisis, universalism and particularism in ethics, ethical reclamation of modern society, etc. The article also deals with the role of philosophy and philosophical education in substantiating the value orientations of the development of Ukrainian society, the formation of communicative, moral, professional competencies of citizens as a factor in the civilizational choice of Ukraine.

From Ethics Washing to Ethics Bashing: A Moral Philosophy View on Tech Ethics

Weaponized in support of deregulation and self-regulation, “ethics” is increasingly identified with technology companies' self-regulatory efforts and with shallow appearances of ethical behavior. So-called “ethics washing” by tech companies is on the rise, prompting criticism and scrutiny from scholars and the tech community. The author defines “ethics bashing” as the parallel tendency to trivialize ethics and moral philosophy. Underlying these two attitudes are a few misunderstandings: (1) philosophy is understood in opposition and as alternative to law, political representation, and social organizing; (2) philosophy and “ethics” are perceived as formalistic, vulnerable to instrumentalization, and ontologically flawed; and (3) moral reasoning is portrayed as mere “ivory tower” intellectualization of complex problems that need to be dealt with through other methodologies. This article argues that the rhetoric of ethics and morality should not be reductively instrumentalized, either by the industry in the form of “ethics washing”, or by scholars and policy-makers in the form of “ethics bashing”. Grappling with the role of philosophy and ethics requires moving beyond simplification and seeing ethics as a mode of inquiry that facilitates the evaluation of competing tech policy strategies. We must resist reducing moral philosophy's role and instead must celebrate its special worth as a mode of knowledge-seeking and inquiry. Far from mandating self-regulation, moral philosophy facilitates the scrutiny of various modes of regulation, situating them in legal, political, and economic contexts. Moral philosophy indeed can explainin the relationship between technology and other worthy goals and can situate technology within the human, the social, and the political.

The role of philosophy in the development and practice of nursing: Past, present and future

AbstractThis article summarizes a virtual live‐streamed panel event that occurred in August 2020 and was cosponsored by the International Philosophy of Nursing Society (IPONS) and the University of California, Irvine's Center for Nursing Philosophy. The event consisted of a series of three self‐contained panel discussions focusing on the past, present and future of IPONS and was moderated by the current Chair of IPONS, Catherine Green. The first panel discussion explored the history of IPONS and the journal Nursing Philosophy. The second panel involved a reflection on the challenges of doing nursing philosophy in a research‐intensive context of a Canadian university and the history and current movements in nursing philosophy in the Nordic countries. The final panel involved presentations on the future potential for philosophy in/and for nursing, the critical connections between nursing philosophy and nursing theory, dismantling racism in nursing and the potential for process philosophy to help explore nursing's unique efficacy in creating possibilities for health. The panels were followed by a lively Q&A session with participants, of which there were 252 registrants from across the globe. The event underscored the wide and diverse interests of nurses in philosophical discussion and the need for more virtual events and other connective modalities bringing nurses together to discuss and analyze the value and potential of philosophy to better understand and advance nursing theory and practice.

‘Geloven en weten’ in Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie

Abstract ‘Faith and knowledge’ in Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie. On the Role of Philosophy in Post-Secular Society This article focuses on three aspects that might clarify the quintessence of Habermas’ position regarding the relation between faith and knowledge in his book, Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie. First, a concise overview is given of the role of this specific theme in Habermas’ oeuvre as a whole (from his earliest to his later writings), that may help to illuminate why his so-called shift with regard to the relation between faith and knowledge is in need of modification. Subsequently, the question is raised as to the possible role philosophy may still play for Habermas in the contemporary climate of so-called post-secular thought. Finally, some critical remarks are formulated concerning his genealogical reconstruction, in particular his treatment of respectively the axial period, the double face of nominalism and the specific status of a philosophical, conceptual translation of religious contents.

Conceptual Learning and Local Incommensurability: A Dynamic Logic Approach

In recent decades, the logical study of rational belief dynamics has played an increasingly important role in philosophy. However, the dynamics of concepts such as conceptual learning received comparatively little attention within this debate. This is problematic insofar as the occurrence of conceptual change (especially in the sciences) has been an influential argument against a merely logical analysis of beliefs. Especially Kuhn’s ideas about the incommensurability, i.e., untranslatability, of succeeding theories seem to stand in the way of logical reconstruction. This paper investigates conceptual change as model-changing operations similar to belief revision and relates it to the notion of incommensurability. I consider several versions of conceptual change and discuss their influences on the expressive power, translatability and the potential arising of incommensurability. The paper concludes with a discussion of animal taxonomy in Aristotle’s and Linnaeus’s work.

The Place of Philosophy in Bioethics Today

In some views, philosophy’s glory days in bioethics are over. While philosophers were especially important in the early days of the field, so the argument goes, the majority of the work in bioethics today involves the “simple” application of existing philosophical principles or concepts, as well as empirical work in bioethics. Here, we address this view head on and ask: What is the role of philosophy in bioethics today? This paper has three specific aims: (1) to respond to skeptics and make the case that philosophy and philosophers still have a very important and meaningful role to play in contemporary bioethics, (2) to discuss some of the current challenges to the meaningful integration of philosophy and bioethics, and (3) to make suggestions for what needs to happen in order for the two fields to stay richly connected. We outline how bioethics center directors, funders, and philosopher bioethicists can help.

Who’s afraid of cognitive diversity?

ABSTRACT The Challenge from Cognitive Diversity (CCD) states that demography-specific intuitions are unsuited to play evidential roles in philosophy. The CCD attracted much attention in recent years, in great part due to the launch of an international research effort to test for demographic variation in philosophical intuitions. In the wake of these international studies the CCD may prove revolutionary. For, if these studies uncover demographic differences in intuitions, then in line with the CCD there would be a good reason to challenge philosophical views that rely on those intuitions for evidential support. I argue that philosophical views that rely on demography-specific intuitions for evidential support need not be threatened by such findings. I first provide a detailed analysis of the epistemological principles driving the CCD and distinguish three formulations of this challenge. I then show that there are good reasons to reject all such formulations of the CCD.

Frankfurt-Style Cases and Moral Responsibility: A Methodological Reflection

ABSTRACT Frankfurt-Style Cases (FSCs) seem to elicit the intuitive judgment that an agent is morally responsible despite being unable to act otherwise, which is supposed to falsify the Principle of Alternative Possibility (PAP). Recent empirical studies have shown that the inclination toward this intuitive judgment is shared among people, which seems to reinforce the argument against the PAP. However, some scholars have argued for Descriptive Anti-Intuitionism (DAI) — intuitive judgments have never played an evidential role in philosophy — and thus denied the philosophical significance of such empirical findings. I point out that although DAI fails in its literal claim for FSCs, an associated insight remains potent: an intuitive judgment is so fragile that it can be easily defeated by further arguments. Nevertheless, I argue, empirical studies are significant in uncovering the general principles to which we are committed in our practice concerning moral responsibility. I clarify how such findings can play a robust evidential role in philosophical debates concerning moral responsibility by tracing the literature written by Frankfurt and philosophers.

Covid-19 Affirms the Identity of Philosophy

On the world philosophy day (World Philosophy Day) which is celebrated on 19 and 20 November 2020, UNESCO invites all activists and lovers of philosophy to pay attention to the importance of philosophical thinking in helping humans face the challenges posed by the Covid-19 outbreak. Various activities such as interviews with philosophers, round table discussions, and webinars were held with a focus on the importance of philosophical thinking or reflection, and this affirms the role of philosophy in human life (UNESCO, 2020).

Hermann Cohen on the role of history in critical philosophy

AbstractConsider two features of Hermann Cohen's critical philosophy. First, using what Cohen calls the transcendental method, critical philosophy aims to identify formal conditions of experience that are universally, and so timelessly, valid. Second, detailed, context‐sensitive surveys of the history of science and philosophy are ubiquitous in his accounts of those formal conditions. This paper argues for two claims about how those two features of Cohen's philosophy fit together. First, Cohen holds the striking view that, while philosophy aims to discover and investigate principles that are timelessly valid, it must nevertheless use historical investigation to do so. Second, Cohen has the resources to explain why, on his view, history must play this role in philosophy. This paper uses a genealogical strategy to locate that explanation in Cohen's writings: it traces views of history held by various of Cohen's teachers and shows that Cohen combines and develops those ideas to produce just the explanation needed. Ultimately, the underlying reasoning of Cohen's explanation is this. The history of science has a teleological structure, and as it unfolds, knowledge becomes increasingly universal. But then, elements of scientific theories that remain stable across a succession of increasingly universal theories will be plausible candidates for or approximations of the strictly universal formal conditions of experience. The critical philosopher is thus required to attend to the history of science to identify plausible candidates for those formal conditions.

François Fénelon: Modern philosopher or conservative theologian?

Ryan Patrick Hanley makes two original claims about François Fénelon: (1) that he is best regarded as a political philosopher, and (2) that his political philosophy is best understood as “moderate and modern.” In what follows, I raise two concerns about Hanley’s revisionist turn. First, I argue that the role of philosophy in Fénelon’s account is rather as a handmaiden of theology than as an autonomous area of inquiry—with implications for both the theory and practice of politics. Second, I use Fénelon’s writings on the education of women as an illustration of the more radical and reactionary aspects of his thought. Despite these limits, the book makes a compelling case for recovering Fénelon and opens up new conversations about education, religion, political economy, and international relations in early modern political thought.

Философия мен өркениет арақатынасы

The article comprehends the issues of interaction, the connection of civilization and philosophy, the relationship of culture and philosophy, culture and civilization. A comparative analysis of the concepts of civilized man, individual, personality, social identity is carried out, the place of philosophy in the formation of a civilized society is determined. Man is the architect of the universe. He has shaped, changed and transformed the world with his actions for ages. The material and spiritual riches it has brought together have been collected under the title of civilization and it has become a heritage transferred from generation to generation. The protector of this heritage is philosophy. Philosophy assumed the role of guiding people in understanding the universe, led by the civilizations developed and transferred their existence to the next generation. Likewise, civilizations contributed to the development of philosophical thought with their accumulation. Great civilizations were founded on solid philosophies. Human being is an entity that lives in social life and under the influence of geographical conditions. It has developed a world of thought and established civilizations by adding environmental conditions to its accumulation in society and culture, which is a living organism. In the birth of philosophy, these three elements; The impact of human, community and environmental factors is very important. Within the concept of civilization, within a material and spiritual accumulation of a society; culture, art, literature is also basically the product of a philosophy. Between these two concepts there is a structure that is fed from each other in this context. Values are the basis of social development. Any civilization is also based on values. The role of philosophy in the preservation of values and their transmission to the next generations is very important. In the field of philosophy, our whole life is displayed. It, like a mirror, allows you to see a complete image, moving from the particular to the general. And we designate this integral image with the concept of civilization.

Значение изучения дисциплины «Философия науки» в системе магистратуры технических вузов

The review of the topic is based on rapidly growing technicalization of the world and necessity to include this aspect as a fundamental for engineering education. Technical reality changes attitude to engineer’ competences and knowledge, concept of «engineering thinking», and responsibility of the engineering community. An engineer, creating a technique, has technical power in a man-made society. The desire to overcome the technocratic nature of education resulted in the need for philosophical thoroughness of engineering and technical education. The educational paradigm is in line with the development of scientific knowledge. The article draws attention to the connection between modern paradigm of scientific development and humanitarian component of contemporary education system. The synergistic convergent paradigm of scientific knowledge of the postmodern era is characterized by an interdisciplinary direction of scientific research: the integration of scientific, technical, natural science and socio-humanitarian knowledge. The anthropological perspective of philosophy reinforces its importance in solving the problems of interaction between man and technology. The analysis of scientific literature helped the author to synthesize ideas about the role of philosophy in the modern paradigm of knowledge. The authenticity of the article lies in the author's justification of the most important reasons for studying the discipline «Philosophy of Science» in the master's program of technical universities.

The Global Crisis and Its Role in the Formation and Development of Human Thinking

Research background: The modern world is situated today in a very difficult and complicated period of existence: the coronavirus pandemic, quarantine, the global lockdown, etcetera. Today we are talking about the transition to a new type of social structure, and this transition to something new always entails complexity in adaptation and some breaking of familiar stereotypes. The mankind has faced again the necessity to develop new norms. Purpose of the article: In this article, from the point of view of philosophy, one of the most complex phenomena of the modern information age, is characterized, namely: the global crisis and its role in the formation and development of human thinking, is studied and analyzed. The author’s position echoing the key philosophical ideas presented by such philosophers as R. Descartes and B. Spinoza, I. Kant and G. Hegel, V. Heisenberg and by the others, however, contains its own authorial position. Methods: As part of the historical-comparative analysis, the crucial cultural and existential problems in modern society are demonstrated. The analysis is presented through the prism of such phenomena as a conflict of values, the subjective experience of a person, and a crisis. Thanks to an extensive historical-philosophical and sociocultural discourse, the main milestones of the transformation of understanding and attitude of a person to the basic existential elements of his being in a crisis situation are shown. Findings & Value added: The main focus of the article is on the study and new reception of some previous views on the phenomenon of crisis and the role of philosophy in its evolution.

METODOLOGY OF THE LINGUISTIC RESEARCH IN THE IMPERATIVES OF POSTMODERNISM

The transformation of lingual methodology at the cross line of the epoch of civilizations is highlighted in the paper. Often the state with the methodology is not equal with general scientific level in accordance with leading linguists and philosophers. It is noted that linguists do not always refer to the methodology or explain it quite simply way. There is a vision of the methodology as a manifestation of theory or its identification with a set of methods. The philosophical principle of deconstruction is affirmed in linguistic research in a postmodern situation. Postmodernism has replaced the methodological requirements of classical rationality and a meaning unambiguity of a text with a multitude of the cognition illogical forms and intercultural forms of the meanings creation. A reorientation of requirements of the truth objectivity on to the truth pluralism with elements of subjectivity was happened. The methodology becomes a way for expressing non-scientific spiritual values of humanism. A methodological ideas renewal about general laws the creation of meanings, a method for explaining and linguistic presentation of reality is being opened from a standpoint of the naratology. For the naratology the subjectivity of reference as the identification of a concept with an non-linguistic object. The peculiarity of the so-called self-reference in cases of transcendence of concepts is noted. The postmodern methodology of linguistic study does focus on identifying of tools for meaning forming of the text based on the analysis of the method establishing a reference. Such a tool is seen the philosophical concept of conventionalism, a reaching of the concept correlation with the referent in different cultures. Methodologically, artificially assigned reference is based on the philosophy of pragmatism correct is that what satisfies the cultural needs of the narrator, its associative complexes. The role of philosophy as the methodology that contributes to the realization in linguistic researches the criteria in the humanization in the imperatives of postmodernism is consistently substantiated.

From Ethics Washing to Ethics Bashing: A View on Tech Ethics from Within Moral Philosophy

The word 'ethics' is overused in technology policy circles. Weaponized in support of deregulation, self-regulation or hands-off governance, “ethics” is increasingly identified with technology companies’ self-regulatory efforts and with shallow appearances of ethical behavior. So-called “ethics washing” by tech companies is on the rise, prompting criticism and scrutiny from scholars and the tech community at large. In parallel to the growth of ethics washing, its condemnation has led to a tendency to engage in “ethics bashing.” This consists in the trivialization of ethics and moral philosophy now understood as discrete tools or pre-formed social structures such as ethics boards, self-governance schemes or stakeholder groups. The misunderstandings underlying ethics bashing are at least three-fold: (a) philosophy is understood in opposition and as alternative to law, political representation and social organizing; (b) philosophy and “ethics” are seen as a formalistic methodology, vulnerable to instrumentalization and abuse, and thus ontologically flawed; and (c) engagement in moral philosophy is downplayed and portrayed as mere “ivory tower” intellectualization of complex problems that need to be dealt with through alternative and more practical methodologies. This essay argues that the rhetoric of ethics and morality should not be reductively instrumentalized, either by the industry in the form of “ethics washing,” or by scholars and policy-makers in the form of “ethics bashing.” Grappling with the role of philosophy and ethics requires moving beyond simplification and seeing ethics as a mode of inquiry that facilitates the evaluation of competing tech policy strategies. In other words, we must resist narrow reductivism of moral philosophy as instrumentalized performance and renew our faith in its intrinsic moral value as a mode of knowledge-seeking and inquiry. Far from mandating a self-regulatory scheme or a given governance structure, moral philosophy in fact facilitates the questioning and reconsideration of any given practice, situating it within a complex web of legal, political and economic institutions. Moral philosophy indeed can shed new light on human practices by adding needed perspective, explaining the relationship between technology and other worthy goals, situating technology within the human, the social, the political. It has become urgent to start considering technology ethics also from within and not only from outside of ethics.

Communicatio Idiomatum: Reformation Christological Debates by Richard Cross

Reviewed by: Communicatio Idiomatum: Reformation Christological Debates by Richard Cross Aaron Moldenhauer Communicatio Idiomatum: Reformation Christological Debates. By Richard Cross. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. 312 pp. Richard Cross takes a unique approach to the Christological debates among sixteenth-century Reformers. He does not survey the course of the debates, nor does he consider the many scriptural or patristic arguments raised. Instead, he limits his inquiry to a rigorous analysis of the metaphysical and semantic arguments made by Lutheran and Reformed theologians as they debated the communication of attributes. Cross’s goal is neither to judge which position is correct nor to provide a complete picture of the debates. Instead, he offers deep analysis of key snapshots in the course of the discussion that illuminate the metaphysical and semantic arguments. The result is a book that applies a typical methodology used to analyze scholastic philosophical theology to key moments of Reformation debates about the person of Christ. This approach situates Cross’s work among other works exploring the relation of the Reformers’ Christology to philosophy. Older analyses of Luther’s Christology, influenced by Reinhard Schwarz, argued that Luther broke cleanly with scholastic approaches to the person of Christ since Luther found late medieval metaphysics and semantics unsuited for Christology. Graham White’s Luther as Nominalist (1984) counters Schwarz’s approach by identifying continuities between the scholastics and Luther. In recent years works such as Joar Haga’s Was There a Lutheran Metaphysics? (2012) and David Luy’s Dominus Mortis (2014) have continued this conversation. Cross assumes two points debated in these and other works. First, Cross assumes that the Reformers made metaphysical and semantic arguments in their Christology. Second, Cross assumes that the Reformers knew and used scholastic Christology. The validity of these assumptions can be judged by assessing Cross’s work. An expert in medieval theology, Cross proceeds by [End Page 484] identifying and labeling arguments. While medieval theologians explicitly identified these arguments, the Reformers did not. Despite this difference in style, Cross argues that the Reformers raised metaphysical and semantic arguments and intended them to be taken seriously. Cross reduces key arguments to symbolic representation, using logical shorthand and identifying various positions by initials for ease of future reference. For instance, Cross isolates one of Luther’s arguments raised in his Christological debate with Ulrich Zwingli. Luther held that the two natures of Christ cannot be spatially separated without dividing the person of Christ. Accordingly, wherever Christ’s divine nature is, there Christ’s human nature must also be present. Otherwise the person of Christ is divided. Cross labels this argument as “impossibility of bodily separability” and abbreviates it as “the IBS principle.” He defines IBS as the argument: “If the natures lack two-way spatial inseparability, the person is not indivisible” (59–65). Cross’s list of such frequently cited principles runs close to two pages, showing the extent of his research into primary sources and the precision of his analysis. This type of analysis applied to the conceptually dense material of Reformation Christology demands careful attention from the reader. Cross succeeds in identifying metaphysical and semantic arguments raised by Reformers and in showing that the Reformers knew scholastic Christology, raising questions about how cleanly the Reformers broke with late medieval scholasticism. However, those interested in the debate will need to look beyond this book for a complete picture of Reformation Christology. Cross does not ask how important the arguments he analyzes were in relation to the scriptural, patristic, or other arguments raised. Nor does he ask how significant it is that the Reformers broke with medieval theologians as they pushed philosophical arguments to the background of their work. That is, the reader must recognize the limits of the study that Cross assigns himself. When the limited scope of the book is kept in mind, Cross’s work provides a window into an important facet of Reformation Christology and raises broader questions about the role of philosophy in Reformation theology. [End Page 485] Aaron Moldenhauer Concordia University Wisconsin Mequon, Wisconsin Copyright © 2021 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc

ЦИФРОВАЯ КУЛЬТУРА КАК ОБЪЕКТ КУЛЬТУРОЛОГИИ: К ПРОБЛЕМЕ МЕТОДОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ АЛЬТЕРНАТИВ

Modern domestic research of digital culture, according to the author, is mainly based on scientific approaches developed by the Euro-American philosophical and scientific thought. This position seems counterproductive, as it condemns Russian scientists to eternal lag. The article offers a number of alternative approaches to the study of digital culture. The author presents some subject areas and methods of studying digital culture, which are on the periphery of scientific interests. It offers a number of steps away from established research traditions. First, the author shares phenomenal and noumenal aspects of digital culture. The emphasis on the nominal aspect opens up the possibility of analyzing the value-semantic content of digital culture, identifying the specifics of “digital creativity” as a semantic and syntactic process. Secondly, the author expands the ideas about the genealogy of digital culture. In particular, the role of philosophy in the formation of a new digital method of culture coding is explicated, the way some ideas of structuralism, axiology, phenomenology legitimized the formation of this method is demonstrated. Third, the author falsifies (in the sense of Popper) the tradition of identifying postmodern culture with digital culture. Based on comparative analysis it is proved that the value-semantic content of these cultures do not coincide, that digital culture is a synthesis of the ideals of modernism and postmodernism. Fourth, the author attempts to determine the ontological status of digital culture. He argues that the inherent ability of this culture to reproduce itself makes a person from the subject of cultural production to its object. This non-anthropocentric turn generates an unprecedented alienation of culture. Digital culture is turning into a force that dominates man, turns man into a being not just controlled, manipulated, but also devoid of authenticity. At the same time, non-anthropocentric turn creates unprecedented participation person to the culture. The growing dependence of man on artificial technologies puts culture at the epicenter of human existence. Changing the ontological status of culture entails the need for a radical revision of the conceptual apparatus of its research. The concept of “culture” is spontaneously replaced by the concept of “postculture”. In conclusion, the article emphasizes the vital importance of studying digital culture, the need for theoretical study of ideas about digital culture as a post-culture.

Дираковский синтез квантовой механики и специальной теории относительности: интертеоретический контекст

One of the key episodes of the history of modern physics – Paul Dirac’s 1928 contrivance of the relativistic theory of the electron – in the context of lucid epistemological model of mature theory change is elicited. The peculiar character of Dirac’s synthesis of special relativity and quantum mechanics is revealed by comparison with Einstein’s methodology of the Gen- eral Relativity creation. The structure of Dirac’s scientific research programme and first and foremost the three pivotal principles that put up its heuristics is scrutinized with special emphasis on the “mathematical beauty”. It is contended that it was the general relativity genesis elicited in Eddington’s masterpiece “The Mathematical Theory of Relativity” that constituted Dirac’s synthetic paradigm with its emphasis on mathematical speculation, continual modification and generalization of the basic axioms and with the Clifford algebra and Weyl’s bispinors playing the dual lead of Riemannian geometry and Einstein’s metrical tensor. It is punctuated that in spite of the relentless Dirac’s remarks underestimating the role of philosophy one can trace its indirect influence through Arthur Eddington’s whimsical philosophy of science grounded on Hermann Weyl’s quasi-Husserlian epistemology. The basic stages of realization of Dirac’s research programme are elicited with a special emphasis on the crossbred (dual) objects’ construction.

New Styles of Reasoning in Contemporary Philosophy and Science

The paper discusses the unexpected trends in the most modern forms of philosophy and science. The traditional differences in the roles of philosophy and science can be traced back to Kant: natural sciences refer to possible experience; philosophy as metaphysics does not affect experience at all. Today, there are very different trends. Some physical theories (such as string theory) have a highly theoretical character and cannot be proved by empirical experiments. A new approach has been developed in philosophy too: experimental philosophy, which makes use of empirical data to inform research on philosophical questions. Are these approaches just contradictions in terms or rather new styles of reasoning? The goal is not a deep analysis of x-phi or string theory but a reflection on the context between tradition and new trends in philosophy and science which are still rather marginal but may play an important role in the future.