问答题 Empirical and experimental philosophy has no quarrel with science, either in itself or in its application to education. On the contrary, scientific conclusions and methods are the chief ally of an empirical philosophy of education. For according to empirical philosophy, science provides the only means we have for learning about man and the world in which he lives. Some have thought that this fact makes philosophy unnecessary. They have supposed that the admission that science is supreme in the field of knowledge covers the whole ground of human experience. 46. The elimination does rule out one kind of philosophy, namely, that which held that philosophy is a higher form of knowledge than the scientific kind, one which furnishes knowledge of ultimate higher reality. But it does not follow from the elimination of this particular type of philosophy that philosophy itself must be so.
It would tallow if man were simply and only a knowing being. He is also an acting being, a creature with desires, hopes, fears, purposes and habits. To the average person knowledge itself is of importance because of its bearing upon what he needs to do. It helps him in clarifying his wants, in constructing his ends and in finding means for realizing them. 47. There exist, in other words, values as well as known facts and principles, and philosophy is concerned primarily with values—with the ends for the sake of which man acts.
48. Given the most extensive and accurate system Of knowledge, man is still faced with the question of what he is going to do about it and what he is going to do with the knowledge in his possession.
49. In this matter of the connection of what is known with values, science is an ally of an empirical philosophy against absolute philosophies which pretend that fixed and eternal truths are known by means of organs and methods that are independent of science.
The objection to this position is not merely theoretical. The practical objections to it are that it strengthens appeal to authority and promotes Controversies, which can't be settled by the use of the methods of inquiry and proof that have been worked out in the sciences. There is no great danger that the present-day revival in some quarters of [Greek and medieval philosophies] will make much headway as a theoretical philosophy. 50. There is always danger that such philosophies will have practical influence in reinforcing established social authority that is exercised on behalf of the maintenance of the existing social situation. Against this danger, an experimental philosophy stands in firm alliance with the methods by which the natural sciences arrive at warranted truths.