INTERROGATING PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE: METHODS AND NEW TRENDS

Résumé

‘Scientific’ is the currency of the past and present century’s research methodology. Every works, even in humanities and religion has to be scientific in method and structure to be universally acceptable. As such, science becomes the prism to truth and knowledge. But scientific method or methodology generally relies on inductive model to function. Induction in turns had been seriously criticized by scholars and philosophers; chief among them is David Hume in his famous work, ‘A Treatise of Human Nature’. Thus, there is the tendency to ignore the undercurrent assumptions and dangers inherent in the methods and goals of certain scientific activity at the detriment of humanity in general. To this end, philosophy, being a second-order discipline reserves the epistemic right to interrogate and query the subject matter, foundation, method and the undercurrent assumptions and presuppositions of science. Chief of our focus in this paper is to interrogate and expose certain undercurrent assumptions and presuppositions in science that often elude the lens of most researchers when adopting scientific method in their field of endeavours.