Theos-Talk Archives (November 2001 Message tt00144)

Stephen Hawking wrote:

"Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the 
development of new theories that describe what the universe is to ask 
the question why. On the other hand, the people whose business it is 
to ask why, the philosophers, have not been able to keep up with the 
advance of scientific theories. In the eighteenth century, 
philosophers considered the whole of human knowledge, including 
science, to be their field and discussed questions such as: did the 
universe have a beginning? However, in the nineteenth and twentieth 
centuries, science became too technical and mathematical for the 
philosophers, or anyone else except a few specialists. Philosophers 
reduced the scope of their inquiries so much that Wittgenstein, the 
most famous philosopher of this century, said, 'The sole remaining 
task for philosophy is the analysis of language.' What a comedown 
from the great tradition of philosophy from Aristotle to Kant!"

I doubt if Stephen Hawking was aware of Theosophy.

Monica