Beliefs- Topic 7(Paper2) Flashcards
Why does society have faith in science?
It has contributed towards our lives in significant ways eg, health development.
why has society’s faith in science started to fall?
it has brought about many problems eg, global warming.
What is meant by the ‘cognitive power’ of science?
Irrespective of people’s opinions on science it has greater cognitive power than other sources of knowledge because it’s able to explain things based on solid evidence.
According to Popper what way is science an open belief?
open to scrutiny and testing.
what is meant by the principle of falsification?
scientists seek out evidence to disprove their ideas in order to discard irrelevant theories and look for better explanations.
what is meant by science being cumulative?
Scientific knowledge constantly builds on itself and develops the ideas of previous generations of scientists.
According to Popper, what prevents scientists knowledge from being sacred or absolute truth?
it can always be questioned, criticised and potentially shown to be false even after a theory has been widely accepted.
According to Merton who first supported scientific thinking?
protestants including calvinists due to their ‘this worldly’ beliefs.
Outline the CUDOS norms that merton states make scientists act in ways that serve the goal of increasing scientific knowledge.
Communism- Knowledge is published and shared with the scientific community.
Universalism- Knowledge is judged by universal, object criteria such as testing. The race, sex, class of the scientific should therefore have no impact.
Disinterestedness- Discoveijg knowledge for its own sake. Therefore it’s okay to be proved wrong.
Organised Scepticism- No knowledge claim is considered sacred. All can be investigated, criticised and potentially falsified.
What makes religion a closed belief system?
it claims to have perfect knowledge which comes from a higher power and therefore cannot be challenged. Religious knowledge is sacred, fixed and unchangeable.
what prevents a closed belief system from being disproved?
to challenge religious authority is sinful an act of heresy.
Religious knowledge is based purely on faith and there’s no way of gathering clear evidence to prove it wrong.
How does the Azande explain misfortune?
The snake bit me because i accidentally stepped on it as i was walking down the path. however the Azande don’t believe in coincidence or chance. Thus, when misfortune befalls the Azande they may explain it in terms of witchcraft.
How do the Azande deal with a suspected witch?
Resolved by consulting the princes magic posion oracle.
According to Evans-Pritchard, what 3 functions does the Azande belief system perform?
-It clears the air and prevents grudges from festering.
-It encourages neighbours to behave considering towards one another to reduce the risk of an accusation.
-They believe witchcraft to be hereditary, children have a vested interest in keeping their parent also damage the child’s reputation.
What prevents the Azande from questioning the belief system?
It’s a closed system that cannot be over-turned.
They are trapped in their own belief ‘idiom of belief’ or way of thinking.
Circularity device for sustaining belief systems that Polyani identifies.
People go round in circles using repition and citing the same evidence to back up their arguments.
Subsidiary explanations device for sustaining belief systems that Polyani identifies.
Evidence which appears to disprove their beliefs is simply dismissed as incorrect or inferior.
Denial of legitimacy to rivials device for sustaining belief systems that Polyani identifies.
People who challenge these beliefs are dismissed as wrong and ignorant.
According to Polanyi, in what way is science a closed belief system?
They’re unwilling to accept challenges to their knowledge.
What did Kuhn mean by paradigm?
These are set assumptions about how the world works, what method to use, what counts as evidence etc.
Accruing to Kuhn, what is normal science?
Is when scientists work within acceptable paradigms doing research which support widely accepted views.
what happens to those scientists who challenge the paradigm l?
are likely to be ridiculed and possibly lose their careers those who work within paradigms are rewarded.
