This is called "problem-situation" in philosophy of sciences. One can understand physics, by studying problems in a historical context--and this field is called

This is called "problem-situation" in philosophy of sciences. One can understand physics, by studying problems in a historical context--and this field is called "history and philosophy of physics". Wrt biology, it is "history and philosophy of biology". We also need to study history of philosophy to understand various philosophical theories: later theories try to account for failures of earlier philosophical theories; etc.