Editorial

A Symposium on the Philosophy of Science

Another successful annual meeting is behind us and plans for the next meeting at Tupelo are already in progress. I have discussed with several people the idea of holding a symposium on some aspect of the philosophy of science. The enterprise of science began as a branch of philosophy from which it gradually split away as empirical methods developed between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The outstanding ability of science to provide answers to questions about the ourselves and the universe and the rise within science of technology have put the scientific enterprise on an equal, if not superior, plane with philosophy and religion as modes of human inquiry. Indeed Auguste Comte in his treatise The Positive Philosophy equates philosophy with speculation and religion with superstition. And from New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis Sigmund Freud asserts, "The bare fact is that truth cannot be tolerant and cannot admit compromise or limitations, that scientific research looks on the whole field of human activity as its own, and must adopt an uncompromisingly critical attitude towards any other power that seeks to usurp any part of its province." Has the empirical method of scientific inquiry so overshadowed the dialectic method of philosophy and religion? Understanding the power and the limitations of the process of scientific inquiry is important to us as members of the scientific community.

I would like to hear from scientists interested in participating in my proposed symposium at the Tupelo meeting. I envision assembling a series of 30 minute presentations on the process of science. The scientific community through the centuries has been engaged in a continual conversation about the success and perceived limits of its method of inquiry. This symposium can be a small opportunity for us to engage in that great conversation.--Ken Curry