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Summary Philosophy of Science and Methodology
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- Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
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- Exploring Humans
Summary Philosophy of Science and Methodology - all
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Voorbeeld van de inhoud
Three types of facts1. Natural facts law of gravity or that freezing point of water is 0°
2. Social facts humans live longer now than before
3. Technological facts self-driving cars
Scientism Scepticism
Main idea: Main idea:
- Knowledge and truth about nature and humans are - Critical philosophical thinking about science, against
only found by and in science the scientific methodology we perhaps do not know
- The scientific method is the only method to obtain anything at all, and we never will
facts and the truth; science is about everything there is no objective observation and hence no truth or
- Age of science is the age of certainty proof in scientific theories
- Our mind is a perfect mirror of reality - There is more than one truth; truth is experience,
Science is vastly superior to all other attempts at securing uncertainty
knowledge: its laws provide certainty page 15 - Pluralistic conception of rationality and knowledge,
Associated with: facts are social constructions
Modernism = modern thinking - Our mind is a crooked mirror
Rational-secular (= without religion) - knowledge = oppressive power, science is an
think for yourself, use reason only; ideology, it should be ‘Anything goes’
the scientific method is the only procedure to obtain
true knowledge Science does not give certainty, it is equal to other forms
of knowledge, science is a faith page 16-17
Key words: Facts, the truth, rationality
Associated with:
- Post modernism = after modernism
so secular thinking but different
individual and emotional expression are key
- Radical scepticism (relativism, nihilism and cynicism)
everything is relative; science is just an opinion
and there is no truth to be known
Radical interpretation of philosophical scepticism has
become a raging fire in society
the backdrop of the issue/societal debate
e.g., 'alternative facts', 'fact free politics', fake news, 'post-
truth' era, political correctness, freedom of speech, identity
politics and conformism
In communication science terms: misinformation and
disinformation
Ongoing debate, keeps coming back in the history of philosophy of science
Philosophical scepticism is critical thinking about science within the boundaries of philosophy
It’s a spectrum (spectrum is used to classify something in terms of its position on a scale
between two extreme points)
,Naive inquiry Scientific inquiry
“Non formalized, non systematic and non controlled “Highly formalized, systematic and controlled inquiry’
form of collecting and summarizing information into ‘observations and reasoning are error prone’”
naive theories” "Science shifts the locus of truth from single
People try to understand the world around them by individuals to groups, by establishing a set of mutually
observing phenomena and making logical agreed-upon rules for establishing
deductions about causes and effects truth."
Also known as: Also known as
Common sense: What we do in daily life The scientific method
Premodern thinking: religious thinking, belief in a Modern thinking
given truth (e.g. by a god) Analytical-empirical approach; experimental
Non-sophisticated ways of knowing reality (fixing research
belief)
Methods of knowing: Step in scientific methods:
1. Tenacity: what is commonly known is true 1. The use and selection of concepts (variables)
2. Authority: a highly regarded person speaks the 2. Linking concepts (variables) to
truth propositions(hypotheses)
3. Reasonable man: reason and logical consistency 3. Testing theories with observable evidence
are key 4. The definition of concepts (variables)
Associated with biases, convictions, popular scepticism, 5. The publication of definitions and procedures
myth 6. Control of alternative explanation
7. Unbiased selection of evidence
'Slogan’: 8. Reconciliation of theory and observation
‘I have this theory': The use of the word theory when a
hypothesis, idea, or speculation is meant "A theory is a set of interrelated constructs (concepts),
definitions, and propositions that present a systematic
view of phenomena by specifying relations among
variables, with the purpose of explaining and
predicting the phenomena.”
Associated with:
A critical shift in perspective compared to naive
inquiry
Methodological rigor, modeling
Slogan
Truth is an objective reality 'out there'
and our ideas do not alter that reality
We develop theories that are true
Benefits of the Scientific Method
1. Lower chance of drawing wrong conclusions
a. As the scientific method is based on objectively observable evidence, it can be
shared and tested by a group of persons
2. The scientific method is self-correcting
a. Incorrect or inadequate theories can be detected by other scientists; hence, they
can also be falsified and rejected
,How can humans get true knowledge?
- What is knowledge?' was a question posed by Socrates which began the philosophy of science
and philosophy of knowledge = epistemology.
o Ontology (how the world is): Study of being (onto = to be)
- Knowledge is a justified true belief or: 'true judgment with an account'
o True = corresponds to the facts
o Justified = there is a good reason for believing it
- There are three fundamental questions of knowledge today:
1. How can we justify knowledge?
2. What is the ultimate source of knowledge?
3. What is the method by which we gain knowledge?
- Metaphysics is a philosophical branch about what is beyond the physical, and it asked
questions about unobservable things, or about the first causes of things.
- Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the world made of? Investigating such
questions is called ontology. Ontology looks at how the world is and the study of being.
o Two visions on the distinction between appearance and reality in Antiquity:
Heraclites Parmenides
- Change (flux) is real, being is not real - Being is real. Real existence is without
- reality is constantly changing (‘Panta Rei’: change.
everything flows) - Everything is, nothing becomes
- nothing is, everything becomes - Our senses misguide humans into
- As everything is constantly changing, we believing that everything is changing all
are not the same as we were previously the time. However, behind this there is an
as a result. unchanging reality.
- People must rely on reason to discover
the truth about reality.
Plato’s answer: Rationalism (427-347 BCE)
- Rationalism believes that true knowledge about reality is derived from the proper use of our
reasoning capacities (intellect and reason):
o Sensory experiences lead to belief or opinions (doxa)
o Reasoning/thinking leads to knowledge (epistèmè) about the unchanging eternal
reality
- Allegory of the Cave: people who rely on sensory experience are like prisoners in a cave- they
will never acquire real knowledge; they mistake appearance for reality.
o We all want to crawl out of the cave of darkness and ignorance and walk in the light
of truth
o Through reason we can escape the world of mere appearance: Replace illusion with
reality
- Plato endorsed the claim by Heraclites that the world of sense is in perpetual flux. However, if
knowledge is equated to perception, our knowledge will vary constantly and become relative
to the observer.
o Easily leads to scepticism. Genuine knowledge will be impossible to attain.
o Plato's beliefs: truth and knowledge concern the way things really are, and not how
they are for me and you
o Theory of Forms: there are two worlds - World of Forms (reality) and the Natural
World we live in (appearances)
Our immortal soul belongs to the World of Forms
, - Nativism: we all have innate (inborn) ideas, however, this knowledge is lost at birth
o We are able to regain this knowledge through learning, which is to remember.
o An illustration of this nativism is seen in his dialogue, Meno. Socrates shows Meno
that his poorly educated slave could remember mathematical knowledge through
reasoning, specifically learning-by- collection (anamnèsis).
- Socratic method: questions and answer sessions to come to true knowledge through classical
dialectical dialogue (= critical reasoning with contradictions); three steps:
1. Anamnèsis: recollect from the World of Forms (ideas)
2. Hermeneutics: interpretation of your recollection
3. Intellectual midwifery (maieutics): helping to give birth to the knowledge
To know is to experience: Aristotle's empiricism (384- 322 BC)
- Empiricism believes that our senses bring us into direct contact with our world and that these
experiences form knowledge. The senses (taste touch, hearing smell, and sight) are reliable
indicators of reality.
o Nothing is in the intellect which was not first in the senses' (known as the Peripatetic
Axiom)
- There is only one world the Natural World that we inhabit
- Our minds are a tabula rasa (a clean slate) which gain impressions from reality
- Science is the discovery of the causes of object we have knowledge when we are able to
provide a causal explanation:
o The Formal Cause: the ideas of values (e.g the shape of the house)
o The Material Cause: the means (e.g the house is made of bricks)
o The Efficient Cause: the source of change of absence (e.g the owner of the
house/inhabitants)
o The Final Cause: the goal of which something is done (e.g to live in/shelter from
cold)
- Aristotle's main contributions: Formal Logic (steps of reasoning, how humans come to
conclusions) - the conceptualization of science as a system of logical statements
o Reasoning has the form of a syllogism:
Two statements (a and b) are the premises and one statement is the
conclusion (c) based on the premises
a and b lead logically to c
- Two ways of inference (reasoning):
Deductive inductive
Moves from broad theoretical principles to Moves from specific cases (particular
specific cases. phenomena) to general laws.
The basic structure of syllogism The basic structure of syllogism:
- (a) and (b) are the premises The premises (a and b) lead to the conclusion
- (c) the conclusion (c)
e.g, (a) The first five eggs in the box were good.
e.g., (a) All human beings are mortal (b) All the eggs have the same best-before
(b) Socrates is a human being. date stamped on them.
(c) Hence Socrates is mortal. (c) Therefore the sixth egg will be good.
If the premises are true (a & b), the conclusion
must be true too (c) = knowledge. The empirical procedure to gain knowledge and
establish the basic explanatory principles.
Conclusions can be made with certainty, as long
as the premises have universal validity. Problem with induction:
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