Many scientists call philosophy pointless pondering. They may not know they’re reading a very old script. Learn about the empiric & rationalist schools of medicine from ancient Greece, & how their ideologies play into thought in the modern world.
Bill Nye’s kerfuffle-causing video response - http://bigthink.com/videos/bill-nye-on-philosophy
The SEP’s summary of the modern version of the empiricist/rationalist divide - http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/