What is Philosophy for Science?

 

Science is about describing what the world is like, often in abstract mathematical terms. Accordingly, Science is rigorously empirical: its primary tool is observation, and its mission is to examine the world in ever-finer detail and report exactly what it sees.

 

Philosophy is about making sense. It is rigorously rational: its primary tool is logic, and its mission is to make sense of everything, including our scientific observations.

 

Philosophy of  Science, therefore, is about making sense of what scientists do: of how they do it, and of what they find.

 

And Philosophy for  Science is about making sense of the world that Science strives to discover: to specify exactly what it takes for the world to be observable, describable and explicable; and to establish the foundational principles that underlie all scientific understanding.