Chapter 1 - Science and Knowledge

Question 1

Scientific approach to knowledge

Answer 1

Rational, logical procedures not affected by beliefs, feelings, or physical presence

Question 2

Technical limits to science

Answer 2

Cannot understand inner worlds of personal experience, feelings, creativity, consciousness, and spirituality
Even Newton’s law of gravity can’t say where Earth will be in orbit millions of years, and systems often evolve in unexpected directions
Physical and theoretical limits, such as limits of space or what came before big bang

Question 3

Science and belief

Answer 3

Rests on foundation of unprovable beliefs and assumptions, impossible without faith in speculative ideas. Laws can’t be proved, some say they evolve and are more like ingrained habits than fixed rules
focuses on material and efficient causes, which can’t answer “why?” Answers about goals imply pull’ of future rather than ‘push’ of past. Often use final causes but deny that it indicates purposefulness.

Question 4

Kurt Godel

Answer 4

Proved it’s impossible for mathematical description of world to be complete and internally consistent. If it’s consistent, it must’ve left something out; if what is left out is included, it will be inconsistent

Question 5

John Barrow

Answer 5

If religion is defined to be a system of thought which requires belief in unprovable truths, then mathematics is the only religion that can prove it is a religion

Question 6

Darryl Reanney

Answer 6

Mathematics can never explain and encompass total richness of wlrd’s truth. There will always be truth that lies beyond

Question 7

Law of cause and effect

Answer 7

not universal, which is which depends on viewpoint

Question 8

Four types of causes

Answer 8

Material cause - matter out of which something is made
Efficient cause - external action that produces effect
Formal cause - inner activity which directs objects development toward specific form
Final cause - design or purpose of object

Question 9

Meaning

Answer 9

critical to quality of human existence

Question 10

Science, subjectivity, and culture

Answer 10

Science can’t be purely objective because design and interpretation of data is influenced by personal beliefs and values of scientists. Scientist is interactive part of study