Science is key and the first principle in philosophy. Philosophy has always been a pursuit of truth, and truth must be grounded in reality. Science represents our current best descriptions of the material world, using observation, experimentation, and evidence to understand the universe. So, when a worldview ignores or denies good science on empirical things, it drifts away from philosophy and into dogma.
Philosophy, when paired with science, becomes a powerful tool. Science helps us answer the “what” and “how” of the world, while philosophy asks the deeper “why” questions: what does it mean, and how should we live? A well-rounded worldview integrates both, using science to stay anchored in facts while philosophy explores the meaning, implications, and possibilities beyond those facts.
The particles that make up your body were created 13.8 billion years ago. Those particles have been on their own journey, and you are only borrowing them for a brief moment in time. Science describes the path of those particles on that journey. Philosophy asks what that journey means, how we should think about it, and how we should proceed. At its best, philosophy gives us good advice, possible explanations for the unknown, and careful ways to explore the unknowable.
