Philosophy of Biology: Is There Still a Need for Philosophy?

In this paper we now focus on critically examining the theoretical and methodological conceptual foundations in the particular field of science of the living, namely the philosophy of biology. The latter is a relatively new domain of research and a quick read of the name, the Philosophy of Biology, may sound rather odd. In fact, it seems to draw attention to two disparate disciplines in methods and scope of interest. On the one hand there seems to be a point of view that considers the cognitive phenomenon in question in a way so as to say “abstract”, i.e. as something that seeks to determine the nature or essence, to use a term dear to many philosophers. On the other hand, there is a point of view that considers these phenomena in the actual place, the result of a process caused by the cognitive system of the subject, if the latter, of course, does not mean that they are human beings. We will argued that the two approaches do not represent two distinct planes of research: in fact philosophy takes on a main task, namely helping to lay the foundations for a philosophy of nature capable of meeting first a completeness, that is, to describe and explain what is special in all the different layers of the different natural systems.