“Science is just a stepping stone to philosophy.”

I somewhat agree with this.

The most essential activity in science is observation. Consensus on the facts is the most essential thing.

As a bonus, you can propose explanations. The only acceptable ideas are those that agree with observation.

A “good” scientific idea is one that not only agrees with known facts but also predicts facts not yet known. That way you can “test” the idea to get a stronger sense of how useful it is. Most ideas are not even valid, never-mind good.

So the most important aspect of science is to test ideas against observation. But where do the ideas come from?

That brings us to philosophy…