SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. REFLECTIONS FOR A TRANSDISCIPLINARY ALLIANCE

Despite historical connections between science and philosophy have always been tight, today's scientists often consider philosophy as extraneous, and sometimes even antagonistic, to science. In this paper I argue that, to the contrary, philosophy may have an important and productive impact on today's science, fragmented into a multitude of specialized fields, by contributing to analyse and clarify concepts and hypotheses, assessing methods, formulating new theories and fostering the interdisciplinary dialogue between different sciences, as well as between sciences and society. More importantly, scientists cannot avoid to make non-empirical assumptions when conducting research, and philosophy can help to identify and critically debating them. I conclude by affirming the importance of a transdisciplinary dialogue between science and philosophy, which is crucial for a reciprocal ethical transformation that could open the road to a more aware and responsible way of approaching knowledge and acting in the present complex world.