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I don't think there's an interesting boundary between philosophy and science. Science is totally beholden to philosophy. There are philosophical assumptions in science and there's no way to get around that.
Sam Harris
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Philosophy and science are interconnected, with science relying on philosophical assumptions.

This quote by Sam Harris highlights the intrinsic relationship between philosophy and science, suggesting that scientific inquiry is not devoid of philosophical underpinnings. He argues that philosophical assumptions are inherent to scientific methods and understanding, which implies that one cannot fully engage with science without acknowledging its foundational philosophical elements.

Themes

PhilosophyScienceAssumptionsConnectionUnderstanding

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on the nature of scientific inquiry, I referenced Sam Harris's quote to emphasize the philosophical foundations of science.

More from Sam Harris

Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person's thoughts.
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What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.
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The core of science is not a mathematical modeling--it is intellectual honesty. It is a willingness to have our certainties about the world constrained by good evidence and good argument.
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It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.
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It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization.
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It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.
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