L5 - Lakatos and Kuhn Flashcards
Does Popper believe that a theory that can’t be disproven could be science?
No, in order for something to be scientific it must be falsifiable.
What is a closed circle argument?
An argument that is not falsifiable.
Everything and it’s opposite are explained by the same principle and therefore can’t be disproved.
What did Popper say that scientists do to protect their current theories?
When do theories become disproven?
That scientists add on Ad Hoc qualifications to their theories to account for anomalies to keep them from being disproven.
They become ‘disproven’ and replaced when there are too many Ad Hoc qualifications for it to be kept alive.
This decision involves human judgement and is not, therefore, determined by the nature of the world.
When is one theory superior to another according to Popper?
The theory which currently has the best explanatory power is the superior theory.
Does Popper believe our current scientific theories are true?
No, he thinks they have the greatest explanatory power at this moment but will inevitably be replaced by a theory with greater explanatory power.
This will always be the case for science. Therefore, we can reasonably assume our current theories are false.
Do we achieve truth with science according to Popper?
No, what we achieve is never truth, only the greater approximation to the truth.
Popper is known for the world verisimilitude, what does it mean?
The appearance of being true or real.
Who was Imre Lakatos?
What is he known for?
A Professor of Logic at the London School of Economics
He is known for criticising Popper’s view that science is about falsifiability.
His claim is that real scientists maintain scientific theories even in the face of clear evidence that refutes them.
What was Lakatos’s proposition about the nature of scientific enquiry?
What is being put up for falsification in a scientific experiment isn’t a particular hypothesis or theory, but whole sets of complex theoretical systems or “research programs”
What was Lakatos’s criticism of scientists?
Scientists ignore exceptions that don’t fit in with their theories as long as their overall research programme is fruitful
You have a career to think about, your promotion, your next grant. So you may ignore evidence to keep your research program alive
When did Lakatos say that scientists abandon research programs
Only when a research theory degenerates. When it ceases to account for new findings on its own.
Does Lakatos suggest that research programs are refuted?
He does not.
He claims a research program is never refuted but is overtaken by a better or more progressive one.
- Science is not about falsification, but a matter of degeneration, going out of favour etc.*
- e.g. behaviourism used to be very popular, but that degenerated (still around) but now it is cognitivism which is dominant in psychology.*
Who was Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996)? What book was he known for?
He was a Physicist turned Science Philosopher who worked at the major American Universities (Harvard, MIT etc.)
His book was The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)
What does Kuhn mean by a ‘paradigm’
A paradigm is the framework, assumptions and method in which scientists of a particular discipline carry out their work.
Each great era is dominated by different paradigms
What did Kuhn suggest were the 4 ‘paradigms’ of science?
what is to be observed
the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked
how these questions are to be structured
how the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted.
