Michael Friedman and Cosmic Philosophy Post (Section 11)

     Michael Friedman was born on April 2nd, 1947 is currently 22 years old living in Brookline, Massachusetts. He received his bachelor's degree at Queens college he received his Masters from City University of New York, and finally he received his doctorate from Princeton University. He is an unusual philosopher because of the focus he has on science as a subject matter. Main interests are the philosophy of science the philosophy of physics and the history of philosophy. In his work he has published a wide variety of books that have a large diversity of topics. in total he's published 9 books over the course of 20 years. Nearly half of these books are focused on the philosopher Immanuel Kant. This is an indicator that he views Immanuel Kant is one of his main influences as a philosopher for many of his ideas and influences. He's also credited with several notions such as the dynamics of reason, retrospective communicative rationality, and revitalized constitutive principles as paradigms. he is also known for his views of Cosmic philosophy. He is the philosopher credited with the theorizing that the earth cannot be scientifically studied accurately. he stated this because in the scientific method to be proved something must be observable many times over. Therefore, since we are only aware of one known universe it is impossible for us to confirm its existence through experimentation. This is an interesting thought to consider as a scientist however his theory is unlikely do too large amounts of scientific data refuting his concepts. As a philosopher Michael Friedman tends to agree with the ideas of the astronomer Carl Sagan. This leads to the cosmic philosophy portion of the post. This leads to the question what cosmic philosophy is. It is defined as the study of the origin of the universe. It is hard to be precise on what caused it because we were not there to see exactly what made the universe and how it came into being. There are many theories and that is what causes philosophy focuses on. It also focuses on the insignificance of earth and the human species it's a view from a much larger universal world view. This ideology to some makes them want to search out the Galaxy for possible other life as being a citizen of the universe. Others fear this notion because of the insignificance they might feel by being so small. This makes them want to hide from being a part of this larger universe and stay in their comfort zone on earth. Carl Sagan being an astronomer wanting to be part of a bigger Galaxy and universe said, "We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." This is much the way Michael Friedman feels when it comes to being part of a much larger and bigger universe. In one of his books about the philosophy of science he says that to understand science better we must recognize the insignificance of our own planet in favor of a much larger stage meaning the universe.