Essential philosophy of Science

Question 1

How is knowledge gained?

Answer 1

• Empiricism
  
  • Derived from sensory experience
• No “innate ideas” in the mind that would come before experience

Question 2

What are the types of knowledge?

Answer 2

• A-priori (From Before)
  
  • Knowledge that can be gained without reference to outside experience
• A-posteriori (From After)
  
  • Knowledge that can only be gained with reference to outside experience

Question 3

Define facts

Answer 3

• Statements derived from experience
  
  • Independent of theoretical assumptions
  • No false facts
  • Do not exist by themselves → Must be established by observation

Question 4

What is observation?

Answer 4

• Directed experience to gain statements of fact
• Involve perception and cognition
• Any observation is a conscious act → No observation is passive
• What we observe depends on what we expect to see

Question 5

What is objective observation?

Answer 5

• Independence from the person of the observer
  
  • Observer is an indispensable part of the observation process

Question 6

What is objectivity?

Answer 6

• Evidence independent of the person(s) that produced evidence
• Core value of science
• Should not matter who is doing the observation

Question 7

What are instruments?

Answer 7

• Make observations that would otherwise not be possible
• Designed for specific purpose

Question 8

What are the categories of instruments?

Answer 8

• Extension of our senses (Telescopes)
• Documenting observations (Camera)
• Measurements (Thermometers)
• Observing phenomena beyond our senses (Magnetic needle on compass)
• Produce phenomena (Particle accelerator for energy and transport)

Question 9

What are experiments?

Answer 9

• Central practice to scientific inquiry
• Conscious and active intervention in natural processes to obtain otherwise impossible/ improbable results

Question 10

What are the functions of an experiment?

Answer 10

• Establish scientific facts
• Test theories and hypotheses
• ‘Theory driven’ or ‘exploratory’

Question 11

What was proper science, according to Popper?

Answer 11

• An idea that could be tested (and risk being refuted)
  
  • Better than knowledge that was never tested but explained ‘everything’

Question 12

Why was Popper against the theories of Marx, Freud and Adler?

Answer 12

• Not exactness or correctness because the Theory of General Relativity wasn’t yet believed to be true…
  
  • More of a problem with the fact that they were more alike to that of astronomy → Primitive Myth/ Pseudo-Empirical

Question 13

What is philosophical positivism?

Answer 13

• Important philosophical position in the late 19th century science
• ’We only know what can be directly observed in sensory experience and what can be derived from this experience’
  
  • Basically empiricism
• Ernst Mach (most influential)

Question 14

What was the Vienna Circle?

Answer 14

• Group of philosophers, mathematicians and scientists from 1924+
• Followed Mach’s ideas on positive knowledge
• Debated the foundations of scientific and mathematical knowledge
• Aimed to provide a scientific foundation to philosophy → Logical Positivism

Question 15

What is logical positivism?

Answer 15

• Science should be based on analytic truth and positive knowledge that is verified
  
  • Everything else is meaningless

Question 16

What are types of truths?

Answer 16

• Analytic (Mathematics)
• Empirical → Propositions about the world that can be verified through experience

Question 17

What is inductive reasoning?

Answer 17

• Inference from a set of particular cases to a general rule

Question 18

What is the verification principle?

Answer 18

• Meaningful statements have conditions = Empiricallt verified or denied

Question 19

How was induction critiqued?

Answer 19

• Hume
  
  • Induction does not lead to certain knowledge
• Popper
  
  • Saw ‘any finite number of observations can be used to make a general claim about knowledge’ as irrational
  • Argued that scientists were not using inductive reasoning → Rather used conjectures, jumping to a conclusion - often after one single observation

Question 20

What is falsification?

Answer 20

• Response to inductive thinking (avoiding)
  
  • Flaw of Induction → Impossible to ever arrive at a meaningful number of finitie observations regarding a general case
• Seeking out verification
  
  • Only counts of it is the result of a risky prediction

Question 21

What attributes should a theory have according to Popper?

Answer 21

• Forbidding things to happen
  
  • The more the better
• Needs to be refutable
• Genuine tests of a theory = Any attempt to falsify
• Progress to knowledge as a goal

Question 22

What are arguments against (Popper’s) falsification?

Answer 22

• Criteria insufficient for a demarcation of science
• Misguided → Wrong kind of philosophy of science