Natural Sciences Flashcards
Pseudoscience
Only served to confirm beliefs - irrefutable, not testable
Scientific method
- falsifiable
- refutable
- testable
Karl Popper - scientific theory
Can never be proven, but can be falsified
Karl Popper vs Descartes - view of knowledge
Certainty causes close-mindedness and in order to acquire knowledge you have to be open to the fact your beliefs might be wrong
Contingency
A future event / circumstance that can’t be predicted with certainty
Normal science - Thomas Kuhn
Puzzle-solving within an accepted paradigm
Paradigm - Kuhn
An exemplary instance of scientific research, paradigms can’t be directly compared, they use terms in different ways
Scientific progress - Kuhn
Alternating normal and revolutionary phases
Science cycle?
Science —anomalies—> crisis (accumulate) —> revolutions
Kuhn vs Popper
Emphasized social factors vs logical ones
Strong programme
- impartiality - examines successful and unsuccessful claims
- reflexivity - applicability
- causality - examines social/psychological/cultural factors
- symmetry - uses the same explanation for T or F
Icommensurability
It makes scientific communication impossible
Essential tension - Kuhn
The force that pushes science forward, The balance between tradition and innovation
