ABSTRACT
Apart from any philosophical interest that we may have in science because of its status and influence on our lives, science is important to philosophy because it seems to offer answers to fundamental philosophical questions. One such question is ‘how can we have knowledge as opposed to mere belief or opinion?’, and one very general answer to it is ‘follow the scientific method’. So, for example, whatever any of us may believe, rightly or wrongly, about whether smoking causes cancer or traffic fumes cause asthma, a government will not act unless there is scientific evidence supporting such beliefs (of course, they may still not act even when there is evidence). Similarly, in all the examples mentioned above, respect is accorded to the views of scientists because their conclusions are supposed to have been reached on the basis of proper methods of gathering and assessing evidence, and hence are supposed to be justified.
