Philosophy of science
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Philosophy of science describes the fundamental doctrines which underlie scientific approaches to understanding the world.
Science as philosophy
Science itself is ultimately philosophical. Proof:
- Science as a process are the various means of experimentation, observation, and analysis leading to empirically testable claims about the physical universe;
- Philosophy is the process by which humans develop and organize their thought processes, values, and criteria for "truth," and is not empirically testable;
- Science as a process as described above cannot itself be empirically tested; on the contrary, it is a human means of understanding the universe which is not empirically testable;
- Therefore, science as a process is not itself scientific; rather, it is philosophical.
For a primer on the subject, see Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions