Some contributions of philosophy to behavioral sciences

Philosophical analyses can aid scientists in several ways. For example, (a) they can help resolve disagreements among scientists about issues such as the relative value of facts versus theories and observations versus inferen ces; (b) they provide historical descriptions of how science went when it w ent well or badly and scientists can imitate these descriptions as though t hey were prescriptive rules; (c) they identify "families" of theories and m ethodologies on the basis of common uses of key words, which can help scien tists understand theories and methodologies other than their own; and (d) t hey can provide essential backgrounds for scientists' debates about issues such as final causality, chance causality, and context effects. However, ph ilosophical analyses cannot provide support for empirical findings or theor etical concepts.