What's the difference between science and philosophy?

Within philosophy of science this question is hardly a settled issue. So it is a very difficult question to answer in a manner that is going to give you any secure sense of the differences.

Superficially you might argue that the questions science asks are generally narrower in their scope and application. Thus a scientific question could be something taxonomical in nature: Like what is a tree? Here you compare it to other living organisms, you make observations and measurements, and you end up with something around the " a woody plant" mark. Fine. A narrow question, specific answer: happy.

The problem is that science actually doesn't only ask narrow questions and the applications for the answers can be truly and unnervingly profound (even if we don't at first understand the implications of the answer). For example, what is life and what is alive? These are scientific questions, but they also start slipping into the "broader philosophical questions" realm.

So philosophy has no easy answer for you here.

/r/askphilosophy Thread