The Need for Empirically-Led Synthetic Philosophy

The problem of unifying knowledge represents the frontier between science and philosophy. Science approaches the problem analytically bottom-up whereas, prior to the end of the nineteenth century, philosophy approached the problem synthetically top-down. In the late nineteenth century, the approach of speculative metaphysics was rejected outright by science. Unfortunately, in the rush for science to break with speculative metaphysics, synthetic or top-down philosophy as a whole was rejected. This meant not only the rejection of speculative metaphysics, but also the implicit rejection of empirically-led synthetic philosophy and the philosophy of nature. Since a change in the paradigm of science requires a change in the philosophy of nature underpinning science, the rejection of the philosophy of nature closes science to the possibility of a paradigm change. Given the foundational problems faced by science, there is a need for empirically-led synthetic philosophy in order to discover a new empirically-based philosophy of nature. Such a philosophy of nature may open science to the possibility of a paradigm change

The Universal Arrow of Time

The Arrow of Time is an empirical feature of nature – time has a direction from the past to the future. However, the laws of Quantitative Science do not generally include the Arrow of Time. It is shown that this is because the Arrow of Time is a qualitative feature of nature that cannot be captured by Quantitative Science. To capture the Arrow of Time, a Qualitative Paradigm of Science is introduced that is a generalisation of the Mathematical Philosophy of Nature underpinning Quantitative Science. Within this paradigm, the Arrow of Time is captured in a new universal Law of Nature – the Universal Arrow of Time. Since Quantitative Science cannot capture the Arrow of Time, the special sciences cannot in general be reduced to Quantitative Science

The Universal Arrow of Time

The Arrow of Time is an empirical feature of nature – time has a direction from the past to the future. However, the laws of Quantitative Science do not generally include the Arrow of Time. It is shown that this is because the Arrow of Time is a qualitative feature of nature that cannot be captured by Quantitative Science. To capture the Arrow of Time, a Qualitative Paradigm of Science is introduced that is a generalisation of the Mathematical Philosophy of Nature underpinning Quantitative Science. Within this paradigm, the Arrow of Time is captured in a new universal Law of Nature – the Universal Arrow of Time. Since Quantitative Science cannot capture the Arrow of Time, the special sciences cannot in general be reduced to Quantitative Science

The Need for Empirically-Led Synthetic Philosophy

The problem of unifying knowledge represents the frontier between science and philosophy. Science approaches the problem analytically bottom-up whereas, prior to the end of the nineteenth century, philosophy approached the problem synthetically top-down. In the late nineteenth century, the approach of speculative metaphysics was rejected outright by science. Unfortunately, in the rush for science to break with speculative metaphysics, synthetic or top-down philosophy as a whole was rejected. This meant not only the rejection of speculative metaphysics, but also the implicit rejection of empirically-led synthetic philosophy and the philosophy of nature. Since a change in the paradigm of science requires a change in the philosophy of nature underpinning science, the rejection of the philosophy of nature closes science to the possibility of a paradigm change. Given the foundational problems faced by science, there is a need for empirically-led synthetic philosophy in order to discover a new empirically-based philosophy of nature. Such a philosophy of nature may open science to the possibility of a paradigm change