There is a debate taking place, on the Internet, between Larry Moran, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto and John Wilkins a Melbourne-based, Sydney affiliated historian and philosopher of science, especially biology. The debate focuses on the relative merits of philosophy and science and which of these generates knowledge.
According to Larry Moran, science, and only science, produces knowledge.
what passes for modern philosophy is a house of cards. It doesn’t tell us anything. It doesn’t produce knowledge, or truth.
John Wilkins argues for philosophy:
It comes, therefore, as a continuing pain to me that scientists will often offer this piece of question beggary:
Science finds out things
Philosophy does not find out things the scientific way
Therefore philosophy is a waste of time and effort
To date there are five posts on this topic; the post that started the discussion between Moran and Wilkins is Moran’s question: What Kind of Knowledge Does Philosophy Discover? Wilkins counter posts with Begging questions about philosophy, science and everything else.
Posts and counter posts follow :
Moran: John Wilkins Defends Philosophy: A Bit of History
Moran: John Wilkins Defends Philosophy: Begging the Question
Wilkins: Does philosophy generate knowledge?
Stay tuned. According to Moran, Jerry Coyne and Larry Moran “have been thinking along the same lines,” so there may be a response from Coyne and more posts from Wilkins and Moran.