Lecture 1 - Demarcation Flashcards
The scientific revolution, implications:
- Radical change in means and methods of knowledge acquisition
- Radical change in epistemic justification
- Marriage with technology: greatest force of history in mankind
Why question of science philosophical:
- Philosophy asks what-is questions
- Marriage of technology and science is very important
- To distinguish science from other things: demarcation problem (Karl Popper)
What is praxis?
Praxis = collective and organized activity constituted by following interrelated items:
- Members
- Aims
- Means to approach aims
- Criteria to judge whether aim has been reached
- Norms and rules that express values necessary for approaching the aims
Scientific praxis
- People: scientists.
- Aims: gathering scientific knowledge.
- Means: acting in accordance to some scientific method, which defines what scientific research is
- Criterion: when one has collected a large and various body of evidence that confirms a hypothesis, model or theory, then it is accepted and obtains the seal scientific knowledge
- Values: CUDOS and rules that express these values
Possibility conditions science:
- Metaphysical (for realists): the knowability of reality
- Epistemic: a framework of interrelated concepts for construction of knowledge
- Material: educational system that delivers people who can work in the praxes
Circular template characterization
science is the plurality of all scientific praxes
Skopology
discourse on aims
Aristotelian aims of science
- Finding out the truth and nothing but the truth about reality.
- Discovering the structure of reality.
- Discovering the laws of nature.
- Understanding reality.
- Gathering knowledge about reality.
- Gathering knowledge about the phenomenal world.
- Describing the phenomena.
- Explaining the phenomena.
Here, phenomena are observable things. For Aristotle, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding is an end in itself.
Baconian aims of science
Baconian Aims:
- To secure and enhance the prosperity and the welfare of the people.
- To contribute to the quality of life, to ‘the good life’, to Aristotelian eudaimonia.
- Wisdom, i.e. the capacity to realize what is of value for us and securing it.
Baconian aims turn scientific praxes into a means to an end.
Metaphysical idealism/realism
Metaphysical idealists: noumenal/phenomenal world, reality is unknowable for us
Metaphysical realists: reality is knowable for us
Two components of understanding
cognitive mental state of subject, objective epistemic achievement
Conclusions from skopology of science:
- Several aims of science have incompatible metaphysical presuppositions
- Philosophy of science and metaphysics are connected
Ethos of science — CUDOS
- Communalism: no private intellectual property should exist, communication of results accessible for all
- Universalism (Objectivity): impersonal criteria for judgement — independent of race, class, gender, seniority, creed, authority, nationality, . . .
- Disinterestedness: selflessness; no financial interest when acting and judging.
- Originality: contribute to extending our current scientific knowledge
- (Organized) Skepticism: every idea, hypothesis, model, theory ought to be criticized and tested severely, respecting Universalism
In current science - DECAY rules, CUDOS is out:
- Differentialism: Norm of justification for knowledge claims influenced by non-epistemic factors: political, moral, economic, cultural.
- Egoism: Boasting and bragging about personal achievements; PR-departments of universities and research institutions in full advertising mode; scientific results ‘put in the market’.
- Capitalism: Profiting from ideas, discoveries and inventions in science; holding patents.
- AdvocacY: Committment to some (explicit or hidden) political or cultural agenda; societal impact and relevance make the day
Hominum-objects
Hominum-objects: concrete objects produced by human beings. Subcategories:
- Artefacts
o Technological hominum-objects: produced by engineers.
o Artisanal hominum-objects: produced by artisans and craftsmen.
- Works of Art, Artistic hominum-objects: concrete objects produced by artists.
- Waste
o Physiological hominum-objects: products of physiological processes in the human body, like urine, faeces, vomit, mucus
o Garbage hominum-objects: by-products of actions performed by humans, like litter, rubbish, debris, scraps, junk, trash.
Dual essence of artifacts
- Description of physical characteristics
- Description of functions: proper function, improper/accidental function
Difference technological and scientific praxes
- Skopology: Aims are always external, Baconian.
- Concerned not with what is, but with what is to be (Skolimowski).
- Epistemology: Production of knowledge in the service of producing artefacts. Practical knowledge, of the how-to type.
Engineering process
- The specific needs and desires of the consumer are described.
- The functional requirements are determined: the functions that the artefact needs to have in order to satisfy the needs and desires of the consumer. (Includes safety, sustainability, recyclability, affordability.)
- Specifications of the design ; blueprint of the artefact.
- Construction of a prototype of the artefact, which is tested, and adapted depending on the test-results.
- Manufacturing the adapted prototype ; the production process.
Engineering process involves both creativity and rationality
Social constructivism of Latour and Woolgar:
scientific facts are social constructions, a complex of contingent factors influence whether something becomes scientific fact
Scope of facticity (becoming scientific fact)
- Hypothesis is speculation
- Hypothesis assumes various modalities
- Hypothesis becomes object of active empirical inquiry and invites judgement
- Hypothesis is confirmed, and fitted in scientific knowledge
- Hypothesis is taken for granted, its history (1–4) is forgotten and stripped away
