Welche Kompetenz hat Wissenschaftsphilosophie?

Many prominent scientists have pointed out that philosophy is of no benefit to science. Stephen Hawking asserts: Philosophy is dead! Sciences use conceptions like natural laws, matter, nature, theories, etc. But science is also confronted with questions such as: „What is a natural law?“ „What is nature?“ „What is matter?“ and „What is a scientific theory?“ These (metatheoretical) questions exceed the sphere of competence of science - they are items of the philosophy of science. Philosophy of science is a metatheory of science. The Philosophy of science overlaps epistemology, ontology, and metaphysics by exploring whether scientific results are true, or whether entities like quarks or electrons really exist. More detailed investigations bring various questions into consideration such as: „How do we define the boundaries between different scientific disciplines?“ „Is there a relation between the beauty and the truth of a scientific theory?“ and „How do we distinguish between science and pseudoscience?“ Additionally, the philosophy of science is concerned with ethical problems of modern technology, with the methodological questions, with the reconstruction of the structure and the development of scientific theories, and with revealing of any indoctrination of science. The optimistic conclusion of this paper is: Philosophy is still alive - but the philosopher has to participate in round-table discussions with scientists. We just want philosophers talking to scientists!