Method

Question 1

context of discovery, creation & construction

Answer 1

scientists create, construct hypotheses, models, theories, principles and solutions to open scientific problems.
historian of science

Question 2

context of pursuit and discovery

Answer 2

when a scientist has come up with with any of the things, research continues by pursuing them. New hypothesis needs to be communicated, worded carefully, etc. New theory needs to be applied, etc.
scientist?

Question 3

Context of justification & judgement

Answer 3

when creation and pursuit has ended, the time to judge and draw conclusions has arrived. Confirmation/ information?
Philosopher of science

Question 4

Induction (Bacon)

Answer 4

Deductions are the old ways of natural philosophy, induction is the brand new way of doing natural philosophy.

Question 5

Enumerative induction

Answer 5

generalization from experience (the more you see, the more you generalize -> becomes a rule). Sweeps data together.

Question 6

Colligative induction

Answer 6

conclusion contains a concept that is absent from the premises. Binds data into a concept.

Question 7

illusions of the mind (Bacon)

Answer 7

1. tribe (human errors due to limitations of our sense organs/ intellect)
2. cave (humans’ false ideas acquired thoughtlessly by habit, false education, etc.)
3. marketplace (false ideas due to linguistic confusion (same words in science as in daily life))
4. theatre (ideas from outdated, false philosophical views and authoritative dogmas, which have generated fictitious world)

Question 8

methodological rules of Newton

Answer 8

I: admit no more causes than such as are true & sufficient to explain appearance
II: therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes
III: qualities of bodies (…) are to be esteemed the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever
IV: the argument of induction may not be evaded by hypotheses

Question 9

Criticism induction

Answer 9

major problem with taking induction as THE scientific method is that many generalities and laws of nature have not been found by inductive interferences from observations. Often act of creation (like newton & gravity), not an inductive inference. Induction is a scientific method, but not THE.

Question 10

Hypothetico-Deductive method

Answer 10

method of testing hypotheses, models and theories, and still prominently present in instruction manuals of many scientific disciplines.

Question 11

HD-method schematically

Answer 11

1. open problem
2. construct hypothesis
3. experimental test implication of H
4. analyse results, draw conclusions
5. H confirmed or infirmed
6. report results
   (7. if hypothesis is informed, adjust H to H’)

Question 12

Hypothetico-Deductivism

Answer 12

HD-method is the one and only scientific method. HD-method is about the context of pursuit, not about context of discovery

Question 13

Criticism HD-method

Answer 13

criticism is similar to criticism of Inductivism: it is one but not the only method employed in scientific research; there are others besides the two. (gathering data without hypotheses, purely theoretical activities)

Question 14

Two problems in science for Popper

Answer 14

1. demarcation problem (how to demarcate science from non-science, what is scientific knowledge?)
2. Acquisition problem (can we acquire scientific knowledge by means of sensory experience, by performing observations? if not, then how do we acquire scientific knowledge?)

Question 15

testability

Answer 15

confirmability & verifiability

Question 16

confirmability

Answer 16

p is confirmable iff observation sentences can justify p

Question 17

verifiability

Answer 17

p is verifiable iff some observation sentences can make p true

Question 18

scientific

Answer 18

p is scientific iff p is confirmable or verifiable

Question 19

scientific knowledge

Answer 19

p is scientific knowledge iff p is true, and has been justified many times by a variety of empirical evidence, or has been made true by some empirical evidence

Question 20

Falsificationism

Answer 20

q is falsifiable iff some observation sentences make q false.
q is scientific iff q is falsifiable
q is falsified iff some empirical evidence has made q false.

Question 21

Popper - solution to demarcation problem

Answer 21

q is scientific knowledge iff q is true, falsifiable, and has undergone several attempts at falsification that all have failed
(falsehood implies not-knowledge)

Question 22

Criticism of falsifications

Answer 22

too weak (a lot of non-scientific sentences become scientific) & too strong (sentences like ‘there are gravitational waves’ become unscientific)

Question 23

normal science (Kuhn)

Answer 23

central activity of scientists in a paradigm is solving puzzles. Exemplars: successful solutions of once difficult puzzles that helped to establish the paradigm. Scientific research: puzzle-solving.

Question 24

anomalies (Kuhn)

Answer 24

puzzles that are not solved. Usually archived. When a lot of anomalies add up, at some point, the feeling might arise that enough is enough. Leading to crisis.

Question 25

Paradigm shift

Answer 25

scientific revolution, when crisis leads to anomalies being solved, forming a new paradigm with new normal science. Different paradigms can not be reduced or translated into each other: they are incommensurable. Different paradigms evoke different pictures of the world.

Question 26

Criticism Kuhn

Answer 26

Kuhn was exaggerating & extrapolating. Too much emphasis on sociological and psychological elements, not everything of old paradigms is lost, is there such a thing as ‘normal science’?

Question 27

MetaHistorical Criterion

Answer 27

methodology M is better than M’ iff M can explain internally more of what happened in the history of science that led to epistemic progress than M’ (making it more rational) and therefore M needs to explain less externally of what happened that led to epistemic progress than M’.

Question 28

Scientific research programmes (Lakatos)

Answer 28

Hard core of a scientific research program consists of theories, beyond testing. around this: protective belt, whose task it is to protect the hard core from information & falsification. Positive and negative heuristic is the things being (not) worked on in a program.

Question 29

empirically progressive programmes

Answer 29

programme is progressive iff the programme predicts the occurrence of new phenomena or unexpected observations, and these are confirmed

Question 30

Lakatos rationality

Answer 30

Rationality is something that operates in the long run. Progressive programmes gradually replace degenerative programmes.

Question 31

Scientific revolution (Lakatos)

Answer 31

Historical period of accelerated degeneration of one programme and accelerated progression of a rival programme. (Also, no incommensurability)

Question 32

Forms of methodologies

Answer 32

1. universal methodology (e.g. inductivism, HD)
2. discipline methodology
3. paradigm methodology
4. contextual methodology
5. no methodology

Question 33

Feyerabend - against Method

Answer 33

All methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have limits. Some scientific revolutions were actually possible by people not following method –> quite some revolutions weren’t possible if people had followed only inductivism or HD. Anything goes!