Chapter 9 Flashcards
Correspondence theory of truth
A statement is true when it corresponds with reality. Assumes that there is a physical reality which has priority and which the human mind tries to understand. First formulated by Aristotle.
Skepticism
Philosophical view that does not deny the existence of a physical reality, but denies that humans can have reliable knowledge of it; first formulated by Pyrrho of Ellis.
Demarcation
Setting and marking the boundaries of a concept; used, for instance, in the philosophy of science to denote attempts to define the specificity of science.
Philosophy of science
Branch of philosophy that studies the foundations of scientific research, to better understand the position of scientific research relative to other forms of information acquisition and generation.
Logical positivism
Philosophical movement in the first half of the 20th century, claiming that philosophy should stop thinking about metaphysics, and instead try to understand the essence of the scientific approach; central tenet was the verification principle.
Verificationism
Adherence to the principle that a proposition is meaningful only if it can be verified as true or false; with respect to science states that a proposition is scientific only if it can be verified through objective, value-free observation.
Falsificationism
View within the philosophy of science that statements are scientific only if they can be falsified empirically.
Falsification
Trying to refute your research hypothesis. To make a statement falsifiable, you need a concrete and testable formulation, one that is specific.
Hypothetico-deductive method
Model introduced by Popper to understand the scientific method.
1. Start with theory.
2. Deduce predictions from theory.
3. Test these predictions.
4. If these predictions don’t come true: falsify the theory; if they do come true: corroboration (is not verification).
Confirmation bias
Tendency people have to search for evidence that confirms their opinions, goes against falsificationism.
Ad hoc modifications
Modifications to a theory that according to Popper make the theory less falsifiable; decrease the scientific value of the theory.
Paradigm
Notion introduced by Kuhn to refer to the fact that scientists share a set of common views of what the discipline is about and how problems must be investigated.
Degenerative research program
Notion introduced by Lakatos to indicate a paradigm that does not allow researchers to make new predictions that requires an increasing number of ad hoc modifications to account for the empirical findings.
Progressive research program
Notion introduced by Lakatos to indicate a paradigm that allows researchers to make new, hitherto unexpected predictions that can be tested empirically.
Realism
View within philosophy that human knowledge tries to reveal real things in the world; the truth of knowledge is determined by the correspondence of the knowledge with the real world.
Idealism
View within philosophy that human knowledge is a construction of the mind and does not necessarily correspond to an outside world; the truth of knowledge depends on coherence with the rest of the knowledge in the social group.
Postmodernist
In the philosophy of science, someone who questions the special status of science and sees scientific explanation as stories told by a particular group of scientists.
Social construction
Notion used by postmodernists to indicate that scientific knowledge is not objective knowledge discovering the workings of an external reality, but a story told by a particular scientific community on the basis of its language and culture.
Science wars
Notion used by the postmodernists to refer to their attacks against special status of science and their unmasking of scientific knowledge as a social construction
Pragmatism
View within philosophy that human knowledge is information about how to cope with the world; the truth of knowledge depends on the success one has in engaging with the world, on what works.
Science’s claim of superiority was based on four principles
- Realism: There is a physical world with independent objects, which can be understood by human intellect.
- Objectivity: Knowledge of the physical reality does not depend on the observer. Consequently, ‘objective’ agreement among people is possible, irrespective of their worldviews. Science aims to uncover this knowledge so that it becomes public, verifiable and useable.
- Truth: Scientific statements are true when they correspond to the physical reality.
- Rationality: Truth is guaranteed because scientific statements are based on sound method. Scientific statements are not arbitrary guesses, but justified conclusions grounded on convincing evidence and good reasoning, and expressed with the right level of confidence.
Why did a group of philosophers and scientists decide to revisit the specificity of scientific method in the early 20th century? And what they did decide to do after this?
- Science’s power had been demonstrated
- Euclidian geometry was not the only possible geometry
- The major advances in knowledge about logical reasoning.
Because of this scientists has decided to find its demarcation criteria, the lines that would define science and its borders. Philosophy of science, the new branch of science, is the one dealing with questions related to the status and the uniqueness of science.
What was concluded in the 1929 manifesto?
- Truth divides into empirical truths and logical truths
- Empirical truths make claims about the world and are established through empirical verification (observation and experiment)
- Logical truths are based on deductive logic and are influenced by linguistic conventions
- Statements not belonging to either are meaningless.
What cycle did the logical positivist propose?
- Observation
- Translation into general conclusion by induction to form a mathematical law
- Verification of the general conclusion (demarcation)
