| Summary: | Science & Philosophy: an Interdisciplinary and Interpersonal Interaction
Asking oneself what the scientist asks of the philosopher, and vice versa, allows us to set the question of interdisciplinary relationships in a new and intriguing way. Before entering into the merits of the question, it is opportune to methodologically set up the relationship between philosophy and science: that is, not as an abstract relationship between disciplines, or as the establishment of conceptual systems, but as an interpersonal relationship; it is a lively interaction between men and women, professionally devoted to these disciplines, who at the same time believe in the possibility of an enriching dialogical exchange. The disciplines themselves can be seen as real corpuses, incorporated and incarnate in scientists and philosophers; as such, they account not only for the discovery and arrangement of real entities, lexical terms and conceptual constructs, but also for their social and historical character, their impact on the scholars themselves, their risks and benefits. Besides, once our reflection is set up like this, it is also natural to expand it in other directions, almost following the method of a journalistic investigation: who, where, when, how and why to ask? As for what to ask, it is above all important what specialists can ask and expect from each other: first of all patience, trust and willingness to enter the others’ world, in their way of proceeding, looking not so much for the inescapable maculae caecae but for their epistemic fecundity, recognising both the autonomy of the individual disciplines and their reciprocal influences; secondly, rather than stopping at the surface, with its semantic stumbling blocks and verbal skirmishes, it is preferable to dig deep, go straight to the generative core of the disciplines, certainly prodding and asking for clarification, but also allowing oneself to be provoked and changed in the encounter; finally, this (etymologically) methodic, synodic, and diasporic work must be put at the service of a humankind that needs and desires both scientific and philosophical knowledge and wisdom: because basically this exchange is not only a question of pragmatics but also of ethics, of an ethics of human relationships to be educated and cultivated. Only in this way, the & of Science & Philosophy will not be the mere shorthand sign of a hasty intertwining of disparate elements (the letters e and t), but the symbol of an interaction that is as interdisciplinary as it is interpersonal.
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