L1 What is science? Flashcards
What is science communication?
- Communicating scientific information to the public
- Educating the public, shaping political ideas
Why should we communicate science?
- Science should be available to everyone–> we want to move forward
- New insights and directions
- Info should be understandable and readable to the target audience
Why is science important?
It teaches us more about the world, makes us understand things better, and makes us understand why things happen
Why is communicating science to other scientists and non-scientists important?
To other scientists: to increase their knowledge which might help them in their own research
To non-scientists: to increase their knowledge, to raise awareness, and to protect them from misinformation
What is logical positivism and what are the three characteristics?
= science consists of the systematic combination of empirical observation (induction) and logical deduction, which produces reliable knowledge about the world
- Autonomy: scientific research and its outputs are not influenced by external factors
- Neutrality: scientists are not led by personal views, interests or ideologies in their research choices, or data interpretations
- Factuality: values and norms do not play a role in scientific theories
What is the verification theory of meaning?
Only statements from which you can say are true or false, are meaningful
What are characteristics of “logical” in logical positivism?
- Logical analysis of language–> to distinguish meaningful from meaningless (verification theory of meaning)
- Unify all sciences, using one logical language
What is a characteristic of “positivism” in logical positivism?
- No place for things that are not observable
Why does logical positivism fail?
- The truth of universal statements (e.g. laws of physics) cannot be verified, and are meaningless
- Verification rests on induction, but induction cannot be logically justified (all swans are white)
- It assumes we observe the “empirically given”, but all observation is theory-laden
What is the principle of falsification, how does it work, and who believes in it?
Karl Popper
It is demonstrable whether a theory is not true
- A theory is tested by deducing a basic statement, which could be a potential falsifier (theory: all swans are white; basic statement: there is a black swan)
* accept basic statement–> reject theory (falsification)
* don’t accept basic statement–> don’t reject theory (corroboration)–> does not mean theory is true, it is just not proven to be false
What do logical positivism and Popper’s views have in common?
- Science is a rational and formal activity, and all that matters to its evaluation and to understanding it, takes place in the context of justification
- Central to both views is a notion of progress, a notion of science steadily moving in the direction of the ultimate truths about the world
- Both models are prescriptive: they state what science should be like
Who is a famous functionalist, and what is it in the context of science?
Robert K. Merton: Science serves a social function–> providing certified knowledge.
This function structures norms of behaviour, which you need to follow if you contribute to the scientific project
Science is were these behavioural norms are lived up to
What are the norms of behaviour as described by Merton, with the abbreviation CUDOS? Give an example
Communalism = science is a communcal effort
Universalism = we treat each other’s works universally
Disinteretedness = don’t bring own interests to the table
Organized scepticism = being justified in drawing conclusions on the basis of gathered empirical material
E.g. peer review system
What are the principles of Ludwik Fleck?
- Facts are made, not found
- Facts are not timeless; they have history
- Facts are stylized signals of resistance, that oppose arbitrary thinking–> facts keep you from thinking anything you iike
Truth is not a convention, but rather:
- in historic perspective, an event in the history of thought
- in its contemporary context, a stylized thought constraint
- There are (dis)continuities in the development of our knowledge
- We constantly get to know different things
- Only within the different pathways we can meaningfully speak of the growth of knowledge
What is the enculturation & initiation principle?
Becoming a disciplinarian / member of a community of practice / thought collective, requires that one learns practices, values, an orientation to the world.
We learn: what to believe, whom to believe, and how to decide / judge
What is the context of jutification?
Whether the idea is justified
What is the context of discovery?
How an idea occurs to man
What historical turn is related with Thomas Kuhn?
Dissolution of the distinction between the context fo discovery and the context of justification–> what counts as a justification varies from context to context
What is “paradigm” and who introduced it?
Thomas Kuhn: disciplinary matrix about which there is a consensus among scientists from the same field, comprising theories, models, methods, skills, techniques, beliefs, values, etc.
“universally recognized scientific achievements that, for a time, provide model problems and solutions for a community of practitioners”
Members of the scientific community share philosophical presuppositions, scientific theories and methodologies, cultural beliefs, values, and ideals.
What is the structure of scientific revolutions according to Thomas Kuhn?
- Pre-paradigmatic phase
- Paradigm 1: “normal science”
- Anomalies
- Crisis
- Revolution / solution–> new generation of scientists; “Gestalt Switch”
- Paradigm 2: “normal science”
- The structure of scientific revolutions is influenced by nonrational external factors
- When paradigms are in crisis, internal considerations fail
(Fleck &) Kuhn vs Popper
- Acceptance of scientific knowledge is determined in the competition between different paradigms (Kuhn)
- Incommensurability–> paradigms can’t be compared to a neutral measure
* Verification nor falsification suffices as regards choosing between paradigms - Scientific arguments: precision, consistency, power, simplicity
- Social arguments: status, critical mass, interests (scientific and otherwise)
What is pension?
Pension is why certain theories are left at a certain moment, and others embraces
What is “science in action” and who described it?
Bruno Latour
- Emperical turn: follow around scientists as they produce knowledge
- -> Their goal is to enscribe themselves in nature
What is the actor network theory, and who described it?
Bruno Latour
= the interwovenness of science, technology, and society creates a web of actors (actants) and forces that strive to convince the other of the truth of a particular knowledge claim
All actants in the same actor network, so science and society / humans and non-humans / subjects and objects, are not separated.
- These hybrids are created continuously
How would you describe constructivism, and whose visions belong to this?
Actor network theory, Kuhn’s theory of the structure of scientific revolutions, Fleck’s style theory
= knowledge and facts are constructed, not found
–> Different from logical positivism and falsificationism
What is hedging?
= cautious presentation of claims, by explicating modality –> allows you to communicate to your reader how willing you are to commit to certain facts or opinions
Scientific articles–> many hedges
News articles / media–> less hedges
What do Collins & Evans state?
Politics is intrinsic to science, but they do not license “extrinsic” political influence
What is realism?
The universe described by science is real, regardless of how it is interpreted. The truth is independent of how people think.
How does constructivism differ from logical positivism, falsificationism, functinalism, and realism?
Constructivism: we construct reality
The others: we describe reality
