Chapter 2 - Science and Sciencing Flashcards
Folk Methods
Ways of doing things either by intuition or by society. (ask authority, make own inquiries, think things through)
What branches or approaches to Psychology uses folk methods?
Popular Psychology, Artistic Psychology, or Literary Approach to Psychology
Folk Theories
Beliefs based on received wisdom, not concrete facts
What are 2 main problems with folk theories? (Why do we need to do science?)
Inaccuracy (either through personal biases or counter-intuition), and dogmatism (believing theories regardless of contrary evidence, or not knowing that we believe in a particular theory)
Retrievability Bias
The tendency to recall what is easy to remember (what’s common, recent, and/or leaves a strong impression)
Apophenia bias
The tendency to look for patterns and spot patterns in randomness
Anchoring Bias (insufficient adjustment bias)
The failure to adjust to new information given existing salient information
What is the Latin meaning of science? (not the definition in english)
“Scientia”; Knowledge
Science (definition)
Extensive, Shared, Durable and Organized knowledge
Sciencing (define)
The employment of methods to produce knowledge in science
What are the scientist’s obligations?
To believe what’s dependable and not believe what isn’t dependable, to be a reliable source of knowledge, and to create knowledge through sciencing (with other scientists)
What’s the Demarcation Problem?
The conundrum of finding criteria to differentiate science and non-science.
What did Aristotle believe is scientific knowledge?
To know what is and why
What is the modern solution to the demarcation problem?
Find clusters of features that constitute science and make it on a spectrum
What is wrong with Aristotle’s criteria for science?
There are far too many counterexamples (this is a problem with anyone who tried coming up with criteria for science)
Sufficient (if) vs. Necessary (only if) conditions for the following scenarios:
A is sufficient or necessary for B.
1) B has occurred. What is true about A?
2) A has occurred. What is true about B?
3) B not occurring. What is true about A?
4) A not occurring. What is true about B?
1 Sufficient: If B occurred, A is not guaranteed to have occurred.
1 Necessary: If B occurred, A is guaranteed to have occurred.
2 Sufficient: If A occurred, B is guaranteed to have occurred.
2 Necessary: If A occurred, unknown about B
3 Sufficient: If B didn’t occur, A didn’t occur
3 Necessary: If B didn’t occur, unknown about A
4 Sufficient: If A didn’t occur, unknown about B
4 Necessary: If A didn’t occur, B didn’t occur
Both Necessary AND Sufficient Condition (define)
B if and only if A
What are some features of Facts?
They describe the way things are. They don’t exist inside the world. They cannot be True/False. They are never wrong, only we are. They cannot be definitions or meanings.
What are the 2 disciplines in science? What are their differences?
Factual and Formal Sciences. Factual sciences are focused on factual verification (Biology, Psychology, Physics, etc.) and Formal sciences are focused on generating ideas and knowledge (Math, Logic, etc.)
What is C, S and D in “components of the sciences?”. The substantive framework of the sciences.
Community, Society, and Discourse:
Community is about the group of trained people. Scientists/Researchers;
Society is the group that hosts the community. Ideally they support the community;
Discourse is the contents of discussions and inquires of objects initiated by the community
What are objects?
Anything perceivable or conceivable
What is W and F in “components of the sciences?”
Worldview and Formal Background:
Worldview is the philosophical views that guide thoughts and approaches;
Formal Background is the systems and models derived from theory
What is InterK and IntraK in “components of the sciences?”
InterK is knowledge borrowed from other fields;
IntraK is knowledge borrowed from past or current members of the Community
What is P, A, and M in “components of the sciences?”
Problematics, Aim, and Methodics
Problematics are a set of problems for the Community to solve, either for curiosity or for a mission
Aim is the direction to solve Problematics. They can be basic (curiosity-heavy) , applied (mission-heavy), or technical (applying artefacts)
Methodics are orderly methods using a series of techniques for the Community to do the Aim
What are the Hallmarks of Scientific Technique?
1) They roughly produce the same results to anyone competent that replicates the research
2) They produce results that are open to investigation
3) The results are explainable through scientific theory
What does non-science roughly consist of?
The humanities and occult fields
What’s different about the non-sciences (humanities) in the D (Discourse)?
They tend to be more conceptual than physical
Is it true that science and humanities have little to no overlap?
No, there should be criteria to distinguish if that’s true.
Pseudo-science (definition)
Fake science; appears to be but is not science
What is unique about F (formal knowledge) in the occults?
It doesn’t exist, or when it is applied, it often demonstrates that things are defective
What are scientific worldviews?
Philosophical disagreements concerning belief
Realism
A belief system that some things are real, and that those things are mind-independent
Ontology
The study of being (ie. existing) and be-ing anything (eg. being hot)
Ontological Realism
Belief that a single reality exists and that some entities that make reality are mind-independent
What do disagreements about be-ing tend to be about?
About the unobservables (entities not subject to direct sensory perception) rather than the observables
Semantics (definition)
the study and defense of meaning
Descriptive vs. Normative Statements
Descriptive = can be T/F. Normative pertains to norms.
Truth Values
Values that determine whether or not a propositional statement represents the way things are in reality
Principle of bivalence
Every proposition is either True or False, and can never be both
Multivalence
More than 2 truth values (ex: True, False, and indeterminate or in between; maybe a future statement)
Fuzzy Logics
Truth value can be represented by an interval [0, 1]
Relative Statements
Incomplete and not truth-apt (ex: depends on time, place, etc.)
Partially True Statements
1) Some true and some false information or 2) Omits important information
Semantic Realism
The belief that at least some descriptive statements represent some things that are mind-independently true (reflects in reality)
3 Views about Truth (What does it mean for a statement to be true?)
Correspondence (does it correspond to reality?), Coherence (does it align with other statements regarded as true?), Redundancy (is it true in itself without saying that it’s true? doesn’t relate to something)
Semantic Anti-Realism
Textualism = no statement refers to reality
Instrumentalism
A form of pragmatism where practical consequences are concerned
Scientific Instrumentalism
Propositional statements are fundamentally just instruments to accomplish aims (it is quite like realism for the observables)
Epistemology
The study and defense of Knowledge
Epistemological Realism
Belief that it is possible to have genuine knowledge about a mind-independent reality
What is necessary to believe for epistemological realism?
That knowers are part of reality, that they are separate from what’s to-be-known, and that knowledge comes from knowers interacting with the to-be-known
Anti-Realism in Epistemology
Real knowledge is impossible (epistemological skepticism), or deny mind-independence of what can be known (epistemological relativism)
Apprehending vs. Comprehending
Apprehending is knowing about something, Comprehending is understanding it (well enough to teach or do it)
Entity Realism
While unobservables may be part of reality, we can’t really know them
Scientific Realism
Belief that well-specified propositions make it possible to know observables. Requires belief in ontological, epistemological, and semantic realism
Fallibilism
The liability to err is part of the human condition, so we can never have absolute certainty concerning questions of facts
Infallibilism
Belief that some form of certainty is required for scientific knowledge
Certainty
Indicates something is fixed and applies to things and persons
Do we have to be certain to know?
No. We also don’t have to know things to be certain
Ontically objective/subjective entities
Entities that meet/don’t meet certain criteria for mind-independence (ex: price inflation has multiple causes)
Epistemically objective/subjective statements
Concerns for matters of facts/non-factual matters
3 Classes of Sources of Knowledge
Authority, Reason, Experience
Epistemic Authority
Knowledge comes from authority that has particular knowledge
Rationalism (mild, strong versions)
Reason is the way to arrive at knowledge. Mild - rational thought is required to acquire knowledge. Strong - reason is sufficient justification for some claims
Priori Knowledge
Knowledge before (or without) experience. Pretty true for necessary truths. Extreme will say reality is inherently logical, so contingent truths can also be found through pure reason
Rational Intuition
The ability to grasp truth-values by thinking about them. Used for self-evident propositions
Ratiocination
The ability to determine truth values through sequential reasoning
Empiricism
The emphasis on the role of experience to justify knowledge claims (strong says all knowledge is posterioi).
What is required to believe Empiricism
the belief that we can experience something as it really is without bias or other influences
What is experience?
Sense-perception: The use of senses to perceive
Introspection: The looking into oneself: to the mind (an inner sense-perception) or to what we are doing or what we have done
What’s wrong with empiricism and rationalism?
Neither are sufficient to justify knowledge claims by themselves. Empiricism underestimates human fallibility. Rationalism overestimates priori knowledge, which is limited to normative statements
Axiology
The study and defense of Worth or value
Axiological Realism
At least some valuation standards are grounded in facts and objective statements about them are truth-apt
Axiological Anti-Realism
All values are subjective
How does Axiological Realism relate to knowledge?
It guides what we aim and the methods we use to get knowledge
Strong versions of Axiological Realism in Science
The paramount value is truthfulness. The aim is to describe reality as it is
Milder versions of Axiological Realism in Science
Truthfulness is the paramount value, but human fallibility makes it impossible to know what reality really is
Versimilitude
Truth-likeness. How close to the truth a claim is
Axiological Anti-Realism in Science
Truthfulness is not the paramount value, or truth is unobtainable in factual fields
Methodology
The study and defense of methods and their techniques. Not the same as methods (orderly way of achieving aim).
What does Methodology have strong links to?
Epistemology and Axiology (Epistemology because it is the way to arrive at knowledge (or to justify knowledge claims). Axiology because it tells us what to aim)
Methodological Realism (Monistic and Pluralistic views)
Monistic: There is one particular method.
Pluralistic: There are multiple legitimate methods to learn about reality. Concern is which methods are ok.
Methodological Anti-Realism
Anything goes with methods
