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FULL EXAM SUMMARY: Philosophy of Science & Methodology (8.7/10)

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Course
Philosophy of Science & Methodology (774212001Y)

Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)

Full summary of Philosophy of Science and Methodology (lectures + reading). The key concepts were presented in a logical and systematic way, easier to learn and memorize. Grade: 8.7/10

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philosophy
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philosophy of science methodology

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Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
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Communicatiewetenschap
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Philosophy of Science & Methodology (774212001Y)

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WEEK 1:

I. Lecture 1

Part 1: Clashing views on science

Scientism Scepticism Anything goes

- Our mind is a perfect mirror of - Our mind is a crooked mirror Paul Feyerabend: an icon of
reality - Critical philosophy about scepticism.
- Age of science is the age of science
certainty → Key words: knowledge and In Feyerabend's words,
→ Key words: facts, certain facts are social constructions, 'anything goes’ is not a
knowledge, absolute truth, one relativism (all is relative) 'principle' I hold... but the
scientific rationality - Main ideas: No objectivity, terrified exclamation of a
- Main idea: Science is the only uncertainty, knowledge =rationalist who takes a closer
method to obtain certain oppressive power, science is an look at history. On this
knowledge, science is about ideology interpretation, Feyerabend aims
everything and has no limits to show that no
⇒ Science does not give methodological view can be
⇒ Science is vastly superior to certainty, it is equal to other held as fixed and universal
all other attempts at securing forms of knowledge, science is and therefore the only fixed
knowledge: its laws provide a faith and universal rule would be
certainty. Science knows no "anything goes" which would
borders; it will solve all our be useless.
problems.

Associated with Modernism = Associated with
modern thinking: rational Postmodernism = pluralistic
reasoning, think for yourself thinking, more than one truth
and one method

Part 2: What is knowledge? Plato: To know is to remember

Scientism versus scepticism in Philosophical scepticism is critical thinking about science within
philosophy the boundaries of philosophy

Philosophical scepticism - A radical interpretation of philosophical scepticism has become
connected to like a raging fire in today’s society
scepticism in society today - Sceptical philosophy unleashed the sceptical forces in society
(Buggini, 2017)
- Slogans: “everything is relative” “science is just an opinion”,
“there is no truth”

Two basic Denialism/conspir - Deny scientific facts
positions acy thinking
about - Present their own “alternative facts”

,science in - To conspiracy thinking: We are all victims of a big conspiracy
society against the people

Scientific - Defenders of science in the public debate
scepticism - Treat all evidence with reasonable doubt
- Examine arguments, methods and conclusions rigorously

What is Socratic method - Wrote dialogues with Socrates as main character
knowledg (= protagonist)
e - Plato - First text in history about knowledge Socratic method: Q&A
sessions to come to true knowledge through dialectical dialogue (=
critical reasoning with contradictions)

Plato’s answers Plato in Theaetetus (369 BC)
Answer 1: Knowledge is Perception
Answer 2: Knowledge is True Judgement
Answer 3: Knowledge is True Judgement With an Account

The correspondence - Justified true belief:
theory of truth
→ If a statement describes the world as it is, then the statement and
the belief it expresses - is true → the statements corresponds to the
facts ⇒ the correspondence theory of truth

- The correspondence theory of truth: For a belief to possibly
constitute knowledge, the belief must at least be true.

→ The correspondence theory of truth is a philosophical idea that
states that in order for a belief to be considered knowledge, it must
be true. In other words, a belief must accurately correspond to the
way things are in the world in order to be considered knowledge.

- However, its truth is not sufficient for that belief to qualify as
knowledge if it lacks a justification

⇒ For your belief to constitute knowledge, the belief must be true
and you must be able to provide a good or satisfactory reason for
believing it

II. Lecture 2

Part 1: How can humans get knowledge? Remembering or experiencing?
Plato: Rationalism

Allegory of - A story about the difference between appearances and reality.
the cave - Plato used an allegory of the cave to explain his metaphysics. In this allegory, prisoners
are chained up in a cave and only see shadows on the wall from people holding up statues
and figures of animals. The prisoners believe these shadows to be real objects. When a

, prisoner is released, he is initially blinded by the light and takes time to adjust to the real
objects. The sun is the ultimate reality that reveals all objects.

⇒ 2 worlds: World of the Forms (reality) and Natural World (appearances)

Theory of - Human beings contenting themselves with observations of the world as it appears to
Forms them by sensory experience are in a similar position to the prisoners: they mistake
appearance for reality
→ We must learn to see behind the appearances into the world of Forms
⇒ The universal Forms are the ultimate realities that ground true knowledge.

- Pluto subscribes to nativism, the doctrine that human beings possess innate ideas.
→ Innate ideas are knowledge states that we already possess at birth

- Plato’s theory that to learn is actually to be reminded of what one knew in prenatal
existence

→ We already unconsciously posses this knowledge, because our souls have seen the
essences of things when they dwelled in the World of Forms
→ If we use our reasoning capacities properly, we can recover from our condition of
oblivion and remember and hence know the Eternal Forms

Rationalis Explanation - Thinking, using our intellect is key
m - Thinking to recollect (remember) and learn true knowledge
(anamnèsis = learning-by-recollection)
- Rationalism ‘maintains that true knowledge about reality derives
from the proper use of our reasoning capacities (intellect, reason
or ratio)’

3 steps in Socratic 1. Anamnèsis: recollect from the World of Forms (ideas)
Method 2. Hermeneutics: interpretation of your recollection
3. Intellectual midwifery (maieutics): helping to give birth to the
knowledge

Ontological Heraclites: nothing The essence of reality is change: “You cannot step twice into the
debate is; everything same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing upon you”
becomes. → Everyone continuously changes a little bit so that you are not
exactly the same as you were yesterday. → This is the case for
everything that exists.
→ Due to the ever-changing nature of appearances, most
people are not able to attain knowledge. Only those few people
who are capable of grasping the hidden and fundamental reasons
behind appearances can be said to arrive at knowledge.

, Parmenides: It is their senses that mislead human beings into thinking that
everything is, things are changing all the time.
nothing becomes → For instance, the water that feels hot to me is lukewarm for
you, etc.
→ Underlying all the change and movement that we pick up with
our senses, there is a permanent and unchanging reality
→ This reality is indivisible, immutable and imperishable (real
existence means to be without change)
→ Nothing ever really changes: if something changes, it no longer
is.

⇒ Plato believed that the real world cannot be the ever-changing
world of appearances, but a supernatural realm which contains the
eternal and perfect Ideas of almost everything.

2 Epistemology Epistemology = what we know of the world, the study of
philosophic knowledge
al
disciplines Ontology - Ontology (how the world is) = study of being
- Ontological questions are also metaphysical questions; they are
about unobservable things
- Metaphysics: the branch of philosophy that asks and tries to
answer the pre-eminent philosophical question. Study of what is
beyond nature. Or: the study of the first causes of things; that
which we cannot observe.

Aristotle: Empiricism

Empiricism ‘not reason, but sensory experience is the ultimate source of knowledge. The
senses are reliable indicators of what reality is like’

Aristotle’s Aristotle's metaphysics is focused on the natural world rather than the
metaphysics supernatural. He rejected Plato's belief in two separate worlds: the world of
Forms and the natural world we live in. Aristotle believed in only one world, the
natural world we inhabit.

⇒ He believed that knowledge comes from observing nature, and that
universals and essences can be found in natural objects.

Peripatetic Axiom "Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses"
⇒ Sensory experience is key

Tabula rasa Tabula rasa is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental
content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception.
⇒ The mind is like tabula rasa, a blank state, before it receives impressions
from reality.

Syllogism An instance of a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from two
given or assumed premises: (a) - major premise and (b) - minor premise and (c)

, the conclusion.

→ If the premises are true (a & b), the conclusion must be true too (c). The
premises entail the conclusion.

⇒ When the basic premise is not certain, it remains possible to construct a
syllogism, but it will only produce personal opinion not true knowledge.

Nous The truth of the universal causal principles is apprehended by a special and
infallible intellectual capacity called "nous." Such intuitive induction (or
insight) by the mind (nous) guarantees the truth of the empirically acquired
correlations.

Induction From a particular case to a general law, from narrow to broad, from small to big
etc
→ The empirical procedure to gain knowledge and explanation
The premises do not entail the conclusion: it is logically possible that the
premises are true and the conclusion false.

Deduction From a general law to a particular case, from broad to narrow, big to small etc
→ The rationalistic way to gain knowledge and explanation

Four causes doctrine 1. The formal cause: shape
2. The material cause
3. The efficient cause: the primary source of change or its absence
4. The final cause: the goal for the sake of which something is done

Induction problem Aristotle believed that we gain knowledge of primary premises through
induction, which is the process of moving from specific observations to general
laws. However, we cannot make universal claims based solely on sensory
observations, such as the fact that everyone who has passed away was mortal.
This is because there may be exceptions that we have not observed. This is
known as the problem of induction and it means that no matter how many
observations we make, we cannot be certain about the truth of first principles.

Part 2: A new spirit of inquiry: The Scientific Revolution

Aristotleian-medieval worldview
● Aristotle believed the universe was made of
spheres with planets and stars attached to them.
The earth was heavy, immobile, and at the center
of the universe. ⇒ This Aristotelian cosmos
comprised two essentially distinct realms

1. The superlunary (above the moon): Superlunary
objects are imperishable and they move in perfect,

, uniform circles
2. The sublunary (beneath the moon): objects
move in a straight line to their natural place

⇒ The things found in these two realms, and the ways in
which they behave, are correspondingly different

● Everything in the sublunar world is made up of
four elements in various combinations: earth, air,
fire, and water.

→ Heavy objects, composed of earth and water, fall
down. Their natural place is in the centre of the world.

→ Fire, on the other hand, is light and therefore its natural
place is at the outer edge of the sublunar sphere

● Geocentric: earth- and human-centred - Earth
motionless in the centre of the universe
● Everything has a fixed place; is goal directed (=
teleological)

Science in the Middle Ages
- In accordance with Christian theology and scriptures

- Roman Catholic Church dominated social, political,
intellectual and religious life in Europe

- Science followed ‘holy’ books: the medieval
scholasticism (= dialectical reasoning) is the dominant
‘science’ of that time

Ockham’s razor
● "Entities must not be multiplied without
necessity”

→ The idea is that when confronted with two different but
equally satisfactory explanations for some phenomenon or
event, we should choose the ontologically more
'parsimonious' (i.e., economical) one

→ It is important to note that Ockham's razor is a
principle of parsimony and not of simplicity

The Scientific Copernican Revolution - From Geocentric to Heliocentric: the sun is the centre of
Revolution the universe, not the earth
- Things start to move (the earth), no fixed places or final
causes
- Not in accordance with (Christian) theology

, → clash between authority and observation

Galileo Galilei - Empirical observations of the moon with telescope
- Moon craters and sunspots
- Sentenced to house arrest by the Roman Catholic Church
Inquisition that found him guilty of heresy

Johannes Kepler Observation and calculation: Planets don’t move in perfect
circles but in elliptical trajectories (laws of planetary
motion)

Isaac Newton - Three laws of motion
- Law of gravitation
- The apple falling and the planet’s orbit is the same force
- Explains the behaviour of all objects in mathematical
terms

Bacon’s new Methodology Bacon argued that we can only settle an intellectual
methodology dispute by adopting the young friar's empirical method:
Truth does not come from contemplation and authority,
but relies on the testimony of the senses.

→ Emphasis on empiricism: knowledge through the
senses through observation and experiment and not
through argumentation and authority

Idols 1. Idols of the Tribe: innate distortion of natural
reality
2. Idols of the Cave: distortion by upbringing and
habits (your culture)
3. Idols of the Marketplace: distortion by the use of
language (framing)
4. Idols of the Theatre: distortion by dogma’s (=
indisputable schools of thought)

Combination - Use the new science to correct the idols and the dogma’s:
by observation in combination with theory

- Experimenters are like ants, collecting and using
information. Theorists are like spiders, spinning webs of
their own ideas. But philosophers are like bees, gathering
information from the garden and the field, and then
transforming and digesting it using their own mental
powers.

3 main characteristics 1. Commitment to the observational method
2. Universal mechanics: no more anthropomorphic (=
meaning that human behaviour was seen as the model for
everything else) → Thus, objects were treated as if they
had a soul.

, 3. Universal mathematics: describe everything in precise
mathematical terms

⇒ The new scientific attitude is like the mechanization of
the world view, everything is like a clock, a machine, like
a clock-work.

→ Demystification (= get rid of myths) started

WEEK 2:

I. Lecture 1

Rene Introduction - ‘Father of modern philosophy’
Descartes’s - Wanted to reason out a complete science from self evident
Rationalism first principles (= absolutely certain sentences)
- Propounded the original Theory of Everything (TOE) that
would explain metaphysical, physical, biological and
psychological reality

- Descartes rejected both scholasticism and scepticism and sought a
viable alternative. He defended the view that human reason, not
perception, grounds knowledge, making him a rationalist → He also
believed in inborn ideas, but was not as radical as Plato.

- Descartes argued that science should be built on statements that are
known to be absolutely true ⇒ To achieve this, he suggests using a
method of doubt to obtain true knowledge.

Methodological Methodological doubt: to doubt as much as possible → Anything
doubt that can be doubted is uncertain and should not be considered as
knowledge.

● He argued that in doubting everything, he knew one thing for
certain: that he was doubting → This became his philosophy,
which he phrased as "I think, therefore I am."
● A fundamental truth (I think therefore I am) + a method
(methodological doubt) = Descartes’s rationalism

Cartesian’s Descartes had the idea that we have two substances: material and
dualism immaterial (mental) substance, they can exist without each other.
→ We have a physical (material) body and a immaterial mind

John Tabula rasa We have no innate ideas: our mind is a white paper, a Tabula Rasa

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