Philosophy and the humanistic disciplines
pp. 53-62
in: , Rethinking knowledge, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
According to the heuristic view, philosophy is not essentially different from the sciences. Some people oppose this view, claiming that philosophy is a humanistic discipline which aims to make sense of ourselves and of our activities, contrary to the sciences, which have nothing to say about this. In this chapter it is argued that these claims are unjustified. For, only if we have a global view of the world and our place in it, we may understand who we are and where we are going. To this aim, philosophy must be an investigation about the world and must be able to use the achievements of the present sciences. In fact, humanistic disciplines are disciplines which are not opposed to the sciences, but study human beings alongside with the sciences.