> I view words and philosophy as derivatives of physics and some juicy stuff (chem & bio) in between.

You might want to leave a role for mental states (beliefs / meanings / contents) being something like states of a software program that is implemented on the neural hardware of the brain, but yup, I hear you. Thats what I meant by being a 'naturalist' / 'materialist' philosopher.

Peering back from our god-like vantage points, what do we see? Natural phenomena (molecules etc) appeared on the scene long before they managed to arrange themselves so as to produce mental phenomena like beliefs etc. And the emergence of beliefs pre-dates the emergence of theories (if theories are viewed as structured sets of statements / beliefs)

When it comes to offering an explanation for natural phenomena, then philosophy pre-dates the sciences, however. In the beginning there was religion (and appeals to the gods). Next up were the ancient philosophers who attempted to leave god out of it and theorise about the nature of the natural world (among other things). Everything was water, or fire, or composed of atoms, or whatever. Telling a 'just so' story is one thing... But philosophers also turned toward the natural world. Aristotle did work on classifying different flora and fauna, for instance and he may well have been the first biologist.

Then (well, after a long while) philosophers started considering the methods that were suited to the empirical study of the natural world ('natural philosophy'). Once those methods were worked out... Scientists were able to practice routine science by applying those methods to the study of specific phenomena (running experiments and the like). Have you read T. Kuhn at all? He is more a scientist than a philosopher but he writes on the relationship between theory (aka philosophy) and 'routine science' (though apologists consdier he is often misunderstood because he had a tendancy to say things he didn't really mean)...

Crucial experiments are most interesting. When there are two different theories (or philosophies if you like) and they are rivals (cannot both be true). The different theories entail that different phenomena will be observed and a crucial experiment is supposed to determine which of the theories is 'supported' and which is 'falsified'. Though in practice... Things are rather messier than that :-( So here we have theory providing motivation for experiments (because predictions fall out of theories). And once you have your experimental results... The significance of those... Needs to be interpreted. And philosophers aren't too bad at that either ;-)

In the beginning (of academia if you like) there was philosophy. Then as the methods were worked out... Different branches of philosophy broke off and became independent disciplines in their own right. (And typically turned hostile towards their origins and denied their founders were philosophers). Philosophy... Well, stick 'philosophy of' in front of any science (or discipline) you like and it is a legitimate subject matter for a philosopher once more. We study theory. And philosophy (as a discipline) continues to pick up the topics that we haven't really figured out the methodology for yet. We have yet to develop scientific methodology for the study of consciousness (note: I am talking about consciousness as an essentially subjective state that feels a certain special way to the experiencer - I am not talking about objective states like reportability or wakefulness). We have yet to develop scientific methodology for the study of ethics and aesthetics. But maybe one day ;-) Though it might involve revising our conception of science just a little bit...

(e.g., are states of a software program physical / material states?)

How do we differ?

Maybe my conception of philosophy is a little different from yours?

> but I view philosophy as usually having local effects within clusters and most of it superstitions that serve to increase compliance with local traditions and to suppress individual variation. (omigod.)

Hmm.
That doesn't sound like the philosophy I know ;-)

I've heard of LeDoux and have been meaning to read 'The Emotional Brain'. I need to recall it because it is impossible to pick it up off the shelf. But he did some work on the neural basis for fear (in particular) I believe... Aside from that... I haven't heard of the other stuff / people you mention - though I shall have a look. Thanks for passing that on to me :-)

Er... I am a little worried about your conception of philosophy ;-)

Are you thinking it is about the ancient philosophers, or Sartre, or Derrrida, or whoever?

That is continental philosophy. Continental philosophy is to analytic philosophy as psychoanalysis is to cognitive neuro-psychology.

:-)