Chapter 2

Question 1

Rationalism

Answer 1

We can attain synthetically a proper knowledge about the mechanism and laws underlying the observable reality

Question 2

Empiricism

Answer 2

Science should be based solely on observation and experience. Positivism is an extreme form of empiricism

Question 3

What is the induction problem?

Answer 3

From a limited set of observations no general empirical law can be derived

Question 4

What are the 2 models of truth?

Answer 4

1) the correspondence truth

2) the coherence theory of truth

Question 5

What is the correspondence truth (1)

Answer 5

It’s one of the 2 models of truth. The idea is that a claim is true if it reliable depicts reality

Question 6

What is the coherence theory of truth?

Answer 6

The truth of a claim is constituted by MORE than correspondence with reality( I.e. the context of observation, the way observations and predictions fit into a broader theoretical framework)

Question 7

What is the idea behind Popper’s critical rationalism?

Answer 7

Science should not strive for confirmation of its claims, but seek to scrutinize them (falsification)

Question 8

What is the idea behind Positivism and who introduced the term?

Answer 8

The term was introduced by Auguste Comfe (1798-1857) and the idea is that only knowledge which is based on observation and experiences can be counted as scientific knowledge.
This means that normative beliefs cannot be backed scientifically because science supposedly can only describe.

Question 9

What was the meaning/effect of Kant’s slogan (characteristic of enlightenments) “Sapere Aude” (“dare to think”)?

Answer 9

The slogan marked democratization of the acquirement of knowledge. This democratization was also a main characteristic of the reformation movement. The main message of Martin Luther and John Calvin was that a Christian doesn’t need an intermediary role of the learning authorities in order fo understand the articles of faith.
Luther translated the Bible into national language (German) so they people can read it themselves

Question 10

What was one of the effects of liberation of the authority of Church?

Answer 10

Liberation of the authority of the church marks the origin and the development of modern science, in the renaissance period and in the period of reformation movement.

By thinking for themselves, Copernicus, Galilei, and Kemper developed theories that conflicted with the teachings of the church
This later encourages other scientists and philosophers to continue the development of thought in astronomy

Question 11

In short, what does the enlightenment period mark?

Answer 11

It marks the emancipation of one’s own power of reason, meaning that nobody else can think for you, you have to think for yourself.

Question 12

What does “a priori” mean?

Answer 12

A priori means “preceding experience and observation”. So only by thinking about our way of observing events we can conclude that there is some casualty.
Causality cannot be observed, we only observe sequences of events and then we give meaning to those sequences and we conclude they there must be a cause and a consequence.
We have “ a priori” knowledge of causality/ knowledge which is not based on observation.

We know that 3 plus 5 gives 8, because of the meaning of the numbers 3 and 5 and the definition of “addition” but we cannot “observe” this knowledge.

Or for example “Water is H2O is a synthetic a priory claim because it tells us more than we can observe (I.e. that the water is transparent, odorless, liquid etc).

Question 13

What is analytic a priory knowledge?

Answer 13

Analytic knowledge is a knowledge that we gain by analyzing concepts and axioms and seeing what is implied by those presumptions. So analytical a priory knowledge is gained without consulting experience.

For example one concludes that 13 is a prime because we know the definition of a prime and we can apply this definition when thinking about the number 13.

Question 14

What would positivist think about a claim such as “water is not an element but a chemical connection of hydrogen and oxygen”?

Answer 14

They would disregard it as nonsense-claim because it’s not based on something they can be observed.
Positivists think that empirical experience is the only source of knowledge. What cannot be observed, simply does not exist.

Question 15

What is the main difference between idealists and positivists?

Answer 15

Idealists believe that reality only exists in our minds. Positivists didn’t think that reality only exists in our minds

They thought that observable elements like sounds, colors and forms exist independently of us in reality.

But the objects, phenomena and events that we associate with those elements ( a table, a melody, a thunderstorm) are just mental reconstructions that we use to summarize our sensual experiences to prevent our mind from becoming overburdened.

Question 16

What is the idea behind logical positivism?

Answer 16

Objects and laws that we construct upon the basis of our sensory experiences are more than psychological auxiliaries.

We can be sure that such objects and Laws are real if they are constructed in a logically sound way.

Only knowledge that can be traced back to observational data (via steps of logical reasoning) can be qualified as scientific knowledge. (Logical positivism)

Question 17

What is the induction problem?

Answer 17

The idea that only empirical data may count as good reasons for defending scientific claims results in a problem that undermines any form of empiricism or positivism.
Induction is the opposite of deduction. Deduction is a form of reasoning in which one deduces from general claims or laws more particular conclusions. So we start with a general law and then we form conclusions.

induction means going from particular observations to general claims. For example one can go to 1000 glass houses and observe nothing but red roses and then conclude that all roses are red, which would of course be false as it’s based on Incomplete observation data so we can never define the general principle or law.

Even if we observe all roses on the planet, we still cannot conclude that all roses are red. Perhaps, in the past there was one that was white or pink or there might be a possibility that not all roses grow on planet earth or that there will be white roses in the future.

This is the induction problem

Question 18

What is “syllogism”?

Answer 18

Syllogism is basic deductive scheme of reasoning. We start with a general principle like “all A’s are B’s (a premise) then we determine that A is P (the minor premise) and we conclude that P is B)

Example:
All humans are mortal
Socrates is a human
Socrates is mortal

Syllogism is a valid deductive argument

Question 19

What is the deductive monological model of science?

Answer 19

We have a law and from that we deduce our conclusions. This is model which positivists want to propose and defend

Question 20

What is the idea behind “correspondence model of truth”?

Answer 20

It’s a model of truth that positivists use. According to this model, a claim is true, if it corresponds exactly with reality

So “all swans are white” or “all humans are egoists” are true claims if indeed all swans are white and all humans are egoists.

Therefore it can only be confirmed empirically, though observation.

The problem is that in order to find out whether all people are egoists we need to presuppose more than what is empirically observable.

“Egoism” as such cannot be observed, it’s just a “concept”.

Question 21

What is the problem with the correspondence model?

Answer 21

The problem is that there is no automatic connection between the phenomena that we want to examine (egoism, economic recession, current velocity, etc) and the phenomena that we can observe.
In order to examine phenomena like a recession we need to show that there is a reasonable connection between particular observations and the phenomena.

For example we cannot “see” that sugar dissolves in water. We can observe it when we put sugar in hot water and draw a conclusion based on the observation that sugar dissolves in water.

But it’s a lot more difficult with more complex concepts like “egoism”, “recession”, etc.

Question 22

What makes a theoretical concept for grasping non observable phenomena into a good concept?

Answer 22

These are 3 general criteria:

1) robustness.
A concept should be useable in more than one context so that it covers a set of similar phenomena

2) fit.
The claims that one makes using these concepts should fit into a more general theory

3) predictability.
Using a particular concept one should be able do make a trustworthy predictions about the occurrence of the phenomenon referred fo by that concept

Question 23

What is the standard model of the sciences?

Answer 23

The coherence model of truth forms the basis of what is generally called the standard model of the sciences. It is more process oriented than positivism. The model proposes an empirical cycle which combines phases of induction and deduction.

1. Induction
2. Generalization
3. Noticing regularities, comparing them against other regularities
4. Formulating insights
5. Scrutinizing our theories by deducting testing
6. New hypotheses
7. Testing
8. Deduction

Question 24

What is Popper’s approach called?

Answer 24

Popper’s approach is called critical rationalism
Because he believed that the main task of scientists is to purify science by searching for false claims and ideas.
One critically searches for reasons to falsify a theory instead of looking for ways to support a theory.
Only if a theory survives all those attempts to falsify it, or can be called trustworthy.

Popper believed that reliability cannot be the hallmark of scientific knowledge (because we can never be sure that we will encounter some evidence that falsifies the theory)
Instead, falsifiability is the criteria we can use to distinguish scientific knowledge from no scientific

Question 25

What is the issue with Popper’s theory?

Answer 25

Confirming or falsifying a scientific theory is a lot more complex than positivists and critical rationalists believed it to be.
You can’t just falsify a claim with observation
Especially when comes to more complex concepts.

For example you can’t falsify a statement that all people are egoists by saying that mother Teresa helped a lot of children. It depends on what we regard to be indicators of a selfish or altruistic personality. In order to falsify this theory we would needs to involve a lot of supplementary theoretical considerations.

Popper’s critical rationalism meets the same problem as positivism, which seems to confirm general claims and theories by only looking for particular observations.

Question 26

What theory did Kuhn introduce?

Answer 26

Kuhn introduced the paradigm theory. Scientists work in a paradigm where assumptions are based on already existing theories until some “anomaly” is found and previous theories no longer explain the phenomena, new ways of looking at a problem are investigated, which might lead to a scientific revolution. Kuhn believed that paradigms succeed each other.

Question 27

What is the difference between Duhem’s and Quine’s view on falsification?

Answer 27

both Duhem and Quine see problems with falsification, though there is a difference: for Duhem, the point is that observations can be unreliable, whereas for Quine, it’s that any theory can be protected from any observation.