Science
Organizer not Philosophy

   Science is used in 2 roles - organizer of facts and seeker of first principles. When facts are being organized, we develop organizing principles. I am satisfied with them, with their use in that role. However some scientists and non-scientists take these organizing principles and assert they are first principles. That the organizing principles capture a truth about reality.
   As it relates to a specific discussion about density and similar ones (like an investigation into why the thickness of the Earth's atmosphere is what it is and why internuclear distances of Hydrogen are what they are), IMO we should face the fact that our science is truly phenomenological and not philosophic.
   For instance, our science about density rests firstly on our measurement of distances. All the applicable laws (van der Waals, bond strengths, etc) are fundamentally rules developed to explain facts and gain their numeric content from previous measurements not from first principles.