PHILOSOPHY IS THE MOTHER OF SCIENCE

“The difference between science and philosophy is that the

scientist learns more and more about less and less until she
knows everything about nothing, whereas a philosopher learns
less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about
everything”

The topic 'Philosophy is the mother of science' arises a few

question in our mind. First being what is science and what is
philosophy?

Etymologically, philosophy means the love of wisdom.

Philosophy is the hunt for the most general truths. Philosophy
involves questioning, critical discussions, rational arguments
and systematic presentation of those arguments. It asks whether it
is possible to know anything and to prove it.
Whereas science is a concept that builds and organizes
knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions
about the universe. It involves studying a phenomenon, trying to
explain the phenomenon either by previously existing knowledge
or by writing a new theory, keeping or discarding this theory
and making changes to the already existing knowledge as the
research increases.

Another question the comes up is that how do science and

philosophy differ?

On one hand, science defines the reality whereas philosophy

questions it. Science is based on facts. It is similar to every person.
Whereas philosophy is a perspective, one can have a different
opinion than another person.
When a kite flies, a scientist will apply all the forces acting on it
and will tell you how the kite flies, but a philosopher will tell
you the kite flies because it is the only reason of its existence.
The scientist will answer the question of HOW the kite flies, but
a philosopher will tell you WHY the kite flies.

Philosophy is often regarded as the mother of all the sciences

because it were philosophers who first tried to study the nature
of the world. Philosophy helped the evolution of science.
Aristotle, a great philosopher, was the one who established
Physics, Zoology, and Logic; few major components of what we
call science. History says that Avicenna was heavily influenced
by Aristotle, who then influenced Ockham who influenced
Newton and hence, the whole of modern physics. Ancient and
mideival philosophers didn’t stop at science, they studied
everything, from physics to mathematics, to ethics, law, and
politics, to psychology, sociology, and language. That is, aside
from studying subjects that are specially philosophical, like how
knowledge is obtained, what is knowledge, the existence of
knowledge, is it possible to know etc.

Philosophy contains science, but science doesn't contain

philosophy. Isaac Newton, one of the greatest scientist, however,
at his time, was a philosopher or a natural philosopher. This
explains why he named his famous work: ‘Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica’

The methods of science are for answering well-defined questions.

The role of philosophy is to make sure the right questions are
being asked. And if the right questions are not asked, science
would be reduced to nothing. Without philosophy or
philosophical methods, we cannot reach new information. And
when we stop reaching new information, science would cease to
grow. Philosophy, in constant repetition, opens new subjects to
the sciences to discuss. I believe that philosophy is the mother of
all knowledge because it was the starting point of most of the
sciences that we study today, and if it wasn’t for those ancient
philosophers (and a lot of modern philosophers) then nothing
would’ve been as it is today. Also, because philosophy, is the
most important science, because there is no field of knowledge
that truly discusses who we are from our points of view, and I see
that as something that is truly essential; we are everything to
ourselves, and we need to know what we are to ourselves in order
to understand ourselves. More importantly, philosophy studies
perception which puts all other forms of knowledge on the edge,
because every science strongly depends on it.

Hence, as philosophy was more or less the origin of all sciences

and it is the only way for all these sciences to grow, philosophy
can be said to be the mother of all sciences.