Ciencia y filosofía

The relationship between science and philosophy has always been difficult. During the whole classical and medieval periods, philosophy denied that science was an autonomous activity, by defining it as episteme or apodictic and deductive knowledge. Science thus came to be confused with philosophy. This impeded the development of experimental science until well into the modern world. When, at the beginning of the 17th century, it breaks onto the stage, a new process begins that will culminate in the 19th century, with philosophy turning into a theory of science. Now it is science that denies a role to the philosophy. Such it was the work of the positivism. Zubiri considers that both science and philosophy they have their own specificity, but that they converge in a fundamental point, viz. being knowledge about ousia or reality. There are three periods: between 1942 and 1960 he defines reality as “there are”; from 1960 to 1972 it is the “reality thing” as opposed to the “meaning thing”; and between 1973 and 1983 the character of “actuality” stands out. It is mainly in this last stage when Zubiri distinguishes three intellectual modes of actualizing reality: the most basic and immediate, common to science and philosophy, or “primordial apprehension of reality”, that proper to “logos”, merely descriptive, and that specificic to “reason” or what is formally explanatory. It is at this last level where both scientific and metaphysical investigation unfold. Reason never exhausts reality, and for that reason its knowledge is always penultimate. Whence the necessity to make explicit its ultimate grounds, which are those characteristic of the two previous strata. Resumen Las relaciones entre ciencia y filosofia han sido siempre dificiles. Durante toda la epoca clasica y medieval, la filosofia anulo a la ciencia como actividad autonoma, al definirla como episteme o saber apodictico y deductivo. Ciencia venia a confundirse, de ese modo, con filosofia. Ello impidio el desarrollo de la ciencia experimental hasta bien entrado el mundo moderno. Cuando, a partir del siglo XVII, irrumpe con fuerza la ciencia moderna, se inicia un nuevo proceso que culminaria en el siglo XIX, al convertirse la filosofia en teoria de la ciencia. Ahora es la ciencia la que anula a la filosofia. Tal fue la obra del positivismo. Zubiri considera que ambas, ciencia y filosofia, tienen su propia especificidad, pero que convergen en un punto fundamental, el ser saberes sobre la ousia o realidad. Se diferencian tres periodos: entre 1942 y 1960 define la realidad como “haber”, de 1960 a 1972 caracteriza la “cosa-realidad” por oposicion a la “cosa-sentido”, y entre 1973 y 1983 resalta su caracter de “actualidad”. Es sobre todo en esta ultima etapa cuando Zubiri distingue tres modos intelectuales de actualizacion de la realidad, el mas basico e inmediato, comun a ciencia y filosofia, o “aprehension primordial de realidad”, el propio del “logos” o meramente descriptivo, y el especifico de la “razon” o formalmente explicativo. Es en este ultimo nivel en el que se desarrollan tanto la investigacion cientifica como la metafisica. La razon nunca agota la realidad, y por eso su conocimiento es siempre penultimo. De ahi la necesidad de hacer explicitos sus fundamentos ultimos, que son los propios de los dos estratos previos.