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Summary Philosophy of the Humanities
- Instelling
- Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Philosophy of the Humanities exam notes
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NOTES PHILOSOPHY EXAMWeek 1:
Lecture:
What is philosophy of science?
• General philo of science vs. Specific philo of science
o General: issues and questions that transcend specific disciplines
o Specific: issues specific to a particular scientific discipline
• Different kinds of philosophical theory of sc
o Logical theory of sc
▪ Structure of sc theories and the relationship between theory and evidence
▪ Methodology of sc
• Rules & procedures that sctists do or should follow
▪ Understanding sc thinking
▪ Understanding sc change
• Descriptive and normative philosophies
o Descriptive claims about sc
o Normative claims about sc
o Often descriptive and normative philo become intertwined
▪ A theory of explanation should show us how sc explanation advances our understanding
▪ An account of explanation ought to enable us to comprehend and to arbitrate disputes in
past and present sc
• Rudolf Carnap - Explication
o Says that sc often use explications
o Ex : replacing concept fish with sc concept Piscis
▪ = specifying terms to mean something more specific
o Says that philosophers should use explications just like sctists do
• Science vs pseudo sc
o Sc = an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and
predictions about the world
o Pseudosc= is a claim, belief or practice which is presented as sc but lacks the valid sc methodology
or supporting evidence
o Verifiability
▪ Claim should be testable using sensory experience
o Falsifiability
▪ Claim should have the potential to be refuted by some possible observation
• Demarcating sc from pseudo sc
o Logical positivism : verifiability
▪ Claim should be testable using sensory experience
o Karl Popper: falsifiability
▪ Claim should have the potential to be refuted by some possible observation
• Logical Positivism
o Verifiability theory of meaning
▪ Verifiability = testability
▪ Knowing the meaning of a sentence is knowing how to verify it by means of observation
▪ Experience only source of meaning
, ▪ Sc claims are verifiable = have meaning
▪ Traditional philo lacks meaning
o The Vienna Circle = Logical positivists
▪ Robert Carnap
▪ Moritz Schlick
▪ Otto Neurath
▪ Herbert Feigl
▪ Hans Reichenbach
▪ Ludwig Wittgenstein
▪ Carl G. Hempel
• Problems with verifiability
o The criterion itself is not verifiable
o The neutral experience assumption is false
▪ Observation is theory-laden = you always have your own view / opinion on things
• Karl Popper
o Verifiability theory does not work
o Popper’s alternative: falsifiability
▪ Claims should have the potential to be refuted by some possible observation
▪ Claims need to forbid certain states of affairs
▪ Observation is theory laden
• Problems with falsifiability
o Does not square with sc practice
▪ Sctistss don’t abandon their theories after one falsification
o Pseudo sc can make falsifiable statements
o Probabilistic claims
▪ Spotting wolf in Amsterdamse bos = low probability even but not completely impossible
• Popper’s reproduction requirement
o Non-reproducible single occurrences are of no significance to sc
• Reproduction and replication
o Reproduction = experiment y repeats experiment x ; x and y have the same design; and results of
y confirms x’s results
▪ Problem with non reproducibility in psychology
o Replication = experiment y repeats experiment x ; x and y have a different design, the results of y
confirm x’s results
• Goals of sc
o Realism
o Constructive empiricism
o Accurate descriptions of the observable parts of the world
• (Wide) pragmatism
o Kitcher
o Hempel
o Practically significant truths
▪ Applying the knowledge will contribute to human welfare
o Episthemically significant truths
▪ Certain things which it is good to know for human beings because it will relieve their
curiosity
• Causal relations
o = potentiablly exploitable for purposes of manipulation and control
, • Explanation vs. interpretation
o Natural sc: causality and (nomological) explanation
▪ Erklaren
▪ Methods for causal explanation
o Humanities: interpretation
▪ Verstehen
▪ Methods for interpretation
Workgroup:
Plato & the Allegory of the Cave
Basics:
• Onderdeel van boek VII (7) uit Plato’s Republic
• Hoofdpersonen
o Socrates: leraar Plato
o Glaucon: broer Plato
• Geschreven ongeveer 380 BC
SPA: Socrates → Plato → Aristoteles
• Cave wall as a sort of proto-cinema
Plato & Aristoteles
• Plato: dialogue → understanding & interpreting through dialogue
• Opening yourself up for someone else’s ideas through conversation (think about the cave)
• Aristoteles: praxis → practical uses of philosophy & ethics
Week 2:
Lecture:
Logical positivism: historical context
• Turn of 20th century natural sc flourished (Einstein’s relativity theory)
• Sc as the right model for philo
• Main aim of logical positivism: analysis of the nature, success, and growth of sc knowledge
• Logical reconstructions of sc results (theories, explanations)
o Context of discovery vs. context of justification
• Vienna Circle “Reflective epicenter”
• Verifiability theory of meaning
o Knowing the meaning of a sentence is knowing how to verify it by means of observation
o Verifiability = testability
o Strong empiricist principle: experience is the only source of meaning
o Sc claims are verifiable and hence have meaning seeing as most traditional philo lacks
meaning
The unified sc ideal
, • Unified science: single uniform (observation) language across the sc (including humanities)
• Aim of sc: explanations as answers to why questions
o Covering law explanations
o Variety: deductive nomological explanation
o Monism: only bona fide explanations in natural, social and human sc are covering law
explanations
• Deductive nomological explanation
o Conditions for successful explanation
▪ Deductive component
▪ Nomological component
Verifiability and the problem of induction
• The problem of induction
o Universal laws resist verification and confirmation
• Covering law explanation requires universal laws
o Popper says this is impossible due to induction problem
▪ It is logically impossible to verify every instance covered by the law
▪ In principle always possible that the law will be refuted by future observations
▪ So confirmation is also no solution
• Popper’s alternative
o Like logical positivism, popper wants to capture the nature and growth of sc knowledge
o His alternative is critical rationalism
▪ Justification of induction is impossible: all knowledge is hypothetical
▪ Growth of sc knowledge can be captured by means of falsifiability and
hypothetico-deductive methor
▪ Completely different take on the method of sc and on the demarcation of sc from
pseudo sc
Karl Popper’s critical Rationalism
• Verifiability theory does not work
• His alternative: falsifiability
o Claim should have the potential to be refuted by some possible observation
o Claim need to forbid certain states of affairs
o Observation is theory-laden
• Knowledge is not founded on observation, but can be corrected in the light of observation
• Testing theories by the means of basic sentences
o These are theory-laden
o Their acceptane in the testing of theories is based on convention/agreement
• Verification and confirmation are conservative
• Hypotheses should be risky
Problems with falsifiability
• Does not square with sc practice
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