Abstract

The relationship between science and philosophy has always been a complex one, almost as much as the one that either discipline has with religion. Of course, science historically originated as a branch of philosophy, but ever since the split became per- manent during the 17th and 18th centuries, sci- entists have felt increasingly contemptuous of “armchair speculation,” and philosophers have progressively been fearful of cultural colonization on the part of science. It would be hard to find a better exemplification of what C P Snow famously referred to as “the two cultures” (1959. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press).