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Physics Needs Philosophy. Philosophy Needs Physics

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Abstract

Contrary to claims about the irrelevance of philosophy for science, I argue that philosophy has had, and still has, far more influence on physics than is commonly assumed. I maintain that the current anti-philosophical ideology has had damaging effects on the fertility of science. I also suggest that recent important empirical results, such as the detection of the Higgs particle and gravitational waves, and the failure to detect supersymmetry where many expected to find it, question the validity of certain philosophical assumptions common among theoretical physicists, inviting us to engage in a clearer philosophical reflection on scientific method.

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Notes

  1. The worst episode of this misunderstanding is the confusion between the the (strong) common-sense notion of `confirmation’ and the (weak) Bayesian notion of `confirmation’ that has driven the controversy over Richard Dawid's work on non-empirical confirmation [16]. An attempt to study the actual source of (possibly unjustified) confidence in a theory has been re-trumpeted by scientists as a proof of validity.

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  1. CPT, Aix-Marseille Université, Université de Toulon, CNRS, 13288, Marseille, France

    Carlo Rovelli

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  1. Carlo Rovelli
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Correspondence to Carlo Rovelli.

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Rovelli, C. Physics Needs Philosophy. Philosophy Needs Physics. Found Phys 48, 481–491 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-018-0167-y

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