Whether philosophy has much to say to science is a well-debated topic. I have heard it mentioned that science is what we know and philosophy is what we don't know. That could already imply a relation, one that acts out across the frontier of knowledge.
I am not a trained philosopher - not even a trained philosopher of science - so I cannot present any technical arguments here on the subject. But I would like to discuss a specific example which has always intrigued me. This has to do with the nature of time and space in special relativity. Let's just consider time. Wise people since the beginning of time (sic) have said very profound things about its nature, including Aristotle, St. Augustine, Berlioz, Bergson, John Wheeler, Stephen Hawking, and, most recently, Carlo Rovelli.
But in introducing time into special relativity Einstein does not take any of this into account. He defines time in the simplest, least philosophical, most practical, way possible: time is what is measured by a clock. I think this is a remarkable definition.
First of all, it is the reverse of the usual statement - a clock is what measures time. Einstein simply runs this definition backwards! I wonder if he found it convenient because so many of his heuristic arguments about time in relativity involved clocks (and those about space involved rulers).
Second, Einstein's definition seems to imply that if clocks did not exist to measure it, time would not make sense. This points to the importance of measurement in special relativity, something that is not talked about - perhaps since relativity is a classical theory - as much as, for example, the role of measurement in quantum mechanics.
Third, it is remarkable that special relativity does not seem to require any more deeply philosophical, or sophisticated, notion of time, than the threadbare definition used by Einstein. From his definition, we obtain everything the theory has to give us - time dilation, the relativity of simultaneity, the transverse Doppler effect, etc. It is in fact the existence of some of these effects that shook philosophy to its roots!
Though Einstein posited the view of time taken by relativity and debated it famously with philosophers like Bergson, the fact remains that special relativity uses such plain definitions - and only simple algebra - that even high school students can (and do) follow its basics. There does not seem to be any need for any philosophy, at least in this case.
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