An argument which is familiar to most philosophy students these days is one that goes "philosophy is of no use nowadays, we have science!" It's one that I've ended up arguing with several people about over the last few weeks, and ones which I often struggle to think up a reasonable response to.
Well, I've thought of it now, and I have an essay to procrastinate so here it is!
Essentially, whilst I think science is a fantastic subject and provides great incite into the workings of the natural world, what the issue boils down to is this: ignorance of science does not prevent me from seeing the beauty in the world, and yet without an understanding of ethics and aesthetics, an education in science is worthless. It is out ability to appreciate the aesthetic that makes us human, our struggle with issues of morality that puts us above the animals.
Someone recently, in response to a comment that science doesn't address the truly important issues, pointed out to me that it is science that gives us medicine. Medicines that preserve life and heal physical ills. This is true, but what good is it to preserve a life that is not worth living? As Plato rightly notes, the unexamined life is just such a life. And that is what I mean when I talk of importance: those things that are critical to human existence are not the theories and hypotheses and facts listed by test-tube washers and men in white coats. Rather they are the big questions: how should we treat others? What is beauty? What is love? What is it to be authentic? How then should we live? These are things that the natural sciences cannot tell us. And yet they are what defines our existence.
