Philosophy of Science Exam Flashcards
What are the three grand theories of knowledge?
1) Rationalism (“Thinking is the basis for all knowledge”)
2) Empiricism (“Knowledge comes only from observations”)
3) Idealism (“All knowledge comes from experience”)
What is Ontology?
(Greek ōn, ont− ‘being’); study of being and existence. It seeks to determine what entities can be said to exist, then we can group them based on their characteristics. In the philosophy of management ontology considers such problems as – can organisations be reduced to individuals or are they considered a whole. Overall, is social reality constructed based on human beliefs in opposition to physical reality. On individual level we question the existence of free will, intentions, choices, etc.
What is Social ontology?
The analysis and study of various entities that arise from social interactions. It exists as much as we accept it to exist in everyday reality. Covers such concepts as money, as it is from a natural reality standpoint only a paper bill, in social reality we give it a meaning based on the number on it, similar examples are also market, organizations, etc.. The banknote represents value because everyone acts as if it has that value. More examples of problems investigated are self-fulfilling prophecies and the “double hermeneutic”.
What is Epistemology?
(Greek epistēmē (“knowledge”) and logos (“reason”)); the study of knowledge, what knowledge is, and how it is acquired about reality (one of the four branches with ethics, logic, and metaphysics in philosophy). Usually questions theories, sciences, reliability of knowledge, etc. Overall, the main concern is whether something is opinion, belief, or knowledge. We test if “Can we study social reality the same way as we study physical reality?”, etc.
Explain Causality in terms of two variables - x; y.
An outcome Y, is caused by a cause X, if and only if when X had occurred Y would also have occurred, AND, if X had not occurred, Y would also not have happened.
What is “Causal explanation”?
assumption that by explaining the cause of phenomena we explain the phenomena itself. Used mostly in fields like physics and biology (natural sciences).
What is “Functional explanation”?
Explaining social phenomena by the functions they serve. For instance, the heart functions to pump blood, therefore, explaining why the heart exists in certain organisms. Usually used in biology.
Explain the positive and normative theory
Positive theory:
Explains the world in a value-free way, as it is “What is”. Tends to make explicit positive expectations towards the world. Has a theory–to–world direction of fit. “Government-provided healthcare increases public expenditures”.
Normative theory:
Provides a value-based view of what the world ought to be. Makes normative expectations towards the world. Has a world-to-theory direction of fit. “Healthcare should be accessible to everyone”.
Overall strengthens the epistemological view that knowledge should be based on empirical evidence.
What is Logical Positivism? (also known as logical empiricism)
A philosophical movement that first was founded by Vienna Circle in 1920. Proposed that science should lead the way out of misery rather than religion and meta-physics. Logical positivism, also considered as frontier of scientific knowledge, is very similar to empiricism as it states that only observable statements can be verified. However, the main difference from positivism and empiricism is that through experiments knowledge is verified rather than just based on personal experiences. Furthermore, statements that provide logical proof are also considered as scientific. The main goal was to unify science.
Skaidrojums latviski, no grāmatas:
Pozitīvisms rodas 19.gs. Francijā. Jaunlaiku empīriķu mācības apkopojums (Bacon, Lock, Hume), kas tiecas uz skaidrām un patiesām zināšanām, balstītām uz faktiem. Pozitīvismam raksturīga orientācija uz zinātni, par ideālu ievirzot dabaszinātnisko skatījumu uz pasauli. Pozitīvisti neatbalsta dabaszinātnisko skatījumu uz pasauli, kam nav tiešas saistības ar empīrisko realitāti.
What is Rationalism (epistemology)?
Observations are unreliable, as we have prior knowledge (a priori knowledge) of the world without experiencing it. Reasons (developed theories) are a valid source of knowledge even when we can’t confirm them with observations. One example is a triangle and the theorems that we can associate with it. Even though we can’t observe it empirically, we still can apply the Pythagorean theorem. Therefore, a priori knowledge can be acquired without using any senses such as hearing, seeing, or touching and this apprehension by the intellect creates knowledge in fields like mathematics and logic as a whole and give insights into other studies. (In simple words - We learn about things and gain prior knowledge without even experiencing them, for example, in math, we can’t see and observe numbers but we know the relations they have because of apprehension/understanding by intellect). The problem is that everything around us becomes empirically meaningless as we question and try to prove everything rather than simply understand through basic observation.
Rationalism is the philosophical concept that claims that all knowledge comes from thinking, whereas critical denotes falsification, whereas critical denotes falsification. Thus, critical rationalism is a model rooted in falsification.
Skaidrojums latviski, no grāmatas:
Ar Dekartu (1596-1650; dabaszinātnieks, veic pētījumus medicīnā,izstrādā analītisko ģeometriju) aizsākās Jauno laiku racionālisms (latīņu val. rationalis – saprātīgs), kas atzīst, ka prāts ir īsto zināšanu avots. Jaunlaiku filozofijā racionālisms attīstās nemitīgā diskusijā ar empīrismu.
Racionālisms attīstījies no jau Eiropā ļoti populārā skepticisma (neticību, ka var iegūt drošas zināšanas; Skeptiķi apšaubīja cilvēka spēku izprast sevi un apkārt esošo pasauli.)
Racionālisma laiks (17 gs) ir laiks, kad no Kristietības respektēšanas lielāks respekts ir zinātnei, t.i., mazinās kristīgās baznīcas ietekme uz cilvēku dzīvi.
Jautājums par zināšanu patiesīguma garantiju ir viens no centrālajiem Dekarta filozofijā.
Matemātika – racionālisma viens no galvenajiem stūrakmeņiem, jo matemātika spēj dot pilnīgi drošas zināšanas. Tāpēc valda uzskats, ka, lai garantētu patiesu zināšanu ieguvi, jāmācās no matemātikas.
Matemātika sākas ar aksiomām (no grieķu val. axiōma – pamattēzē, kas ir pamatā citu tēžu pierādījumiem; par aksiomu sauc arī acīmredzamu patiesību, kas nav jāpierāda). => tātad, lai iegūtu stingras un neapšaubāmas zināšanas, tādiem pirmām kārtām ir jābūt pašiem atziņu pamatiem.
Dekarts ir pārliecināts par to, ka ir jāšaubās pilnīgi par visu, tikai tad varēs atrast filosofijas neapšaubāmo pirmo principu. Šo Dekarta pieeju filosofijas jautājumu risināšanai sauc par šaubu metodi.
“René Descartes, the originator of Cartesian doubt, put all beliefs, ideas, thoughts, and matter in doubt. He showed that his grounds, or reasoning, for any knowledge could just as well be false. Sensory experience, the primary mode of knowledge, is often erroneous and therefore must be doubted.”
Rene Descartes: “I think, therefore I am” (cogito, ergo sum)
What is Empiricism?
Knowledge comes from observations only, this leads to a limit in the ability to acquire knowledge due to observation capabilities, because empirically unobservable things do not exist. Overall, we improve and acquire knowledge through a sensory experience. Therefore, the human mind at birth is considered “blank”, and only develops by empirically observing. For example, to know a fire burns, the child must touch it. In terms of scientific methods, this is an inductive reasoning approach. The problem of empiricism isn’t only the limitation but also sometimes observations are wrong and also there are phenomena one can’t observe at all. Furthermore, there are no laws or theories thus no knowledge. The sensory experience is without structure, the process of structuration is missing since we do not process the sensory information to knowledge. Overall, David Hume’s laid foundation of empiricism allowed science to step away further from religion.
What is Idealism?
Point of view that assumes all natural phenomena are nothing more than ideas or mental representations that we project into reality. This reality consists of different images, for example when one walks around a tree different pictures are delivered, thus we develop knowledge from experience. Idealists say that touching and feeling are nothing more than a series of sensual observations. This sensible data provides awareness that there is an object, despite the fact that an object as such cannot be sensed. For example, there is no sound if there is no one to hear it because sound as such doesn’t exist; only the senses of a being can raise awareness of the existence of this phenomenon. When phenomena are recognized using ideas we structure the experience to turn it into knowledge.However, the main problem is where really do these ideas come from and how do they form? (In simple words - nothing is real only beings with mind and soul are ontologically real, therefore, materialistically thinking nothing has substance of any kind, knowledge comes from experiencing things, which we structure with ideas using our mind).
What is Linguistic turn?
By adding logic to observations we can construct observations non-metaphysically as it was a challenge in theories of knowledge that were based on empirical observations. Therefore, truth becomes a property of a sentence which can be true or false.
What is Metaphysics?
Reality outside of human sense perceptions. Study of most fundamental concepts such as being, existence, space, universals, time and events. Also causality is considered as metaphysics. It is considered as fundamental because all other concepts and beliefs rest on it.
What is Synthetic statement? (also considered as empirical truth)
(simple explanation - true or false by observation)
The method to verify these statements are through observations, for example, we can measure that the circle has a diameter of 10 meters. Therefore, the truth of these statements depends on facts.
Synthetic sentences are descriptions of the world that cannot be taken for granted.
What is Analytical statement?
(simple explanation - true or false by definition)
These statements are logically structured and with logical analysis we can verify them. The same example of a circle only through analytical statements we can verify that it is round.
What is The requirement of logical reducibility?
This is the requirement for all knowledge. For every statement in a system of knowledge to be true, you should be able to use logic and through logic only to go back to individual experience. If a statement cannot be reduced through logic to observation, it should not be scientific, therefore should not be in the system of knowledge. Reducibility is for example used to explain mathematical theories to make them observable.
What is The unity of science ideal?
Through the use of logics and observations logical positivism attempts to unify all the sciences. Overall, it is a relationship between language and reality that would include all sciences in the system of knowledge. Foundation of unifying is laid by analytical and synthetical statements. We reduce concepts we can’t directly observe to synthetic statements, therefore, making them observable and explaining them. For example, physical concepts can be reduced to fundamentals and observed. Analytical statements are observed and verified directly. However, it is unrealistic considering the current situation in science.
What is Theoretical concepts?
Problem of logical positivism. It states that there are certain very successful concepts that can’t be reduced to observations and verified through them. There are two types of meaning of concepts: intension which is theoretical, and extension which is empirical. Furthermore, concepts of social sciences are complex and can have multi-dimensional structure. Force in physics, consciousness in psychology, democracy in political science, firm performance in strategic management are examples.
- Intension of concepts - theoretical meaning of concept. Combination of general properties that together can define the concept.
- Extension of concepts - empirical meaning of concept is a set of all phenomena that the concept refers to.
- Reflective
- Formative
What is induction?
The process of reasoning in which the premises of an argument support the conclusion, but do not ensure it.
Example:
P1: Raven 1 is black
P2: Raven 2 is black
P3: Raven 3 is black
Pn: Bn is black
Therefore, all Ps are Black
All ravens are black because each raven that has even been observed has been black.
!New information can change the truth value of the conclusion
What is the Problem of Induction?
There are two main variants of the problem; the first appeals to the uniformity observed in nature, while the second relies on the notion ofcause and effect, or “necessary connection.”
First formulated by David Hume, the problem is that “Induction assumes the future will behave like the past, however, we have no good reason for thinking that’s true”. => he questions our reasons for believing that the future will resemble the past, or more broadly he questions predictions about unobserved things based on previous observations.
Therefore, we cannot claim that something will certainly take place just because in the past we experienced it.
- If a person were asked why he believes that the Sun will rise tomorrow, he might say something like the following: in the past, the Earth has turned on its axis every 24 hours (more or less), and there is a uniformity in nature that guarantees that such events always happen in the same way. But how does one know that nature is uniform in this sense? It might be answered that, in the past, nature has always exhibited this kind of uniformity, and so it will continue to do so in the future. But thisinferenceis justified only if one assumes that the future mustresemblethe past. How is this assumption itself justified? One might say that, in the past, the future always turned out to resemble the past, and so, in the future, the future will again turn out to resemble the past. This inference, however, is circular—it succeeds only by tacitly assuming what it sets out to prove—namely, that the future will resemble the past. Therefore, thebeliefthat the Sun will rise tomorrow is rationally unjustified.
- If a person were asked why he believes that he will feel heat when he approaches a fire, he would say that fire causes heat or that heat is an effect of fire—there is a “necessary connection” between the two such that, whenever the former occurs, the latter must occur also. But what is this necessary connection? Is it observed when one sees the fire or feels the heat? If not, whatevidencedoes anyone have that it exists? All one ever has observed, according to Hume, is the “constant conjunction” between instances of fire and instances of heat: in the past, the former always has been accompanied by the latter. Such observations do not show, however, that instances of fire will continue to be accompanied by instances of heat in the future; to say that they do would be to assume that the future must resemble the past, which cannot be rationally established. Therefore, the belief that one will feel heat upon approaching a fire is rationally unjustified.
What is Deduction?
An argument whose premises, if true, provide conclusive evidence for the truth of its conclusion.
!New information cannot change the truth value of the conclusion anymore:
i.g., the conclusion is given once the premises are given!
Example:
P1: All ravens are black
P2: X is a raven
Conclusion: X is black
Explain the model of empirical cycle or the “hypothetical-deductive method”
Explain the difference between Theoretical and observation language.
The main difference between observational language and theoretical language is that hypotheses can be reduced through logic back to observations, which follows the requirement of logical reducibility. Theoretical language, on the other hand, is included in the system of language because it helps us develop new scientific knowledge but does ot follow the requirement of logical reducibility.
Explain the difference between truth and truth likeliness
Truth lies in observations, whereas truth likeliness can be observed in empirical laws and hypotheses.
What are Reflective concepts?
Reflective concepts make up the properties of a concept. This can be seen in the firm performance example reflected in the diagram below:
Firm performance is what leads to employee growth, profitability, growth of revenues, total shareholder returns, returns on equity.
Explain Kuhn’s theory of paradigms, including what is paradigm and what are the four elements of it.
Starting with the basics:
(In case you are as stupid as I am paradigm (in science and philosphy) means - a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contribution to a field.)
Once a paradigm is established, it has four elements.
1) symbolic generalisations (allows for theories to be depicted through the use of in symbols, e.g. fundamental equation f=m*a)
2)Exemplars (examples of how to apply a theory)
3) Scientific values. (Social-institutional dimensions of a paradigm)
4) Methodological prescriptions (denore how observations can be made and what the requirements are for something to constitute an observation.)
The actual theory:
The theory of the paradigms is reflective of how scientific development looks like in real life. At the beginning phase of their research, scientists would try to observe and come up with explanations for certain occurrences.
Nesaprotu neko bleģ šeit, skataties to bildi un hz kā kko noraksturojiet tur.
Three conclusions that can be drawn based on Kuhn’s theory of paradigms are as follows:
1) Truth only exists within paradigms, within a set of confined ontological and epistemological assumptions;
2) There is o independent criterion to choose between paradigms, which suggests that this may allow for the idea of relativism;
3) Science is a human activity, and social processes are just as important within science as the substantive linguistic outcomes that it produces. Human activity can refer to conflict and interactions between social entities and individuals.
What are the 4 theories of truth?
A typology of Meta theories
[See the attachment]
Explaining entails taking on the outsider perspective, whereas understanding entails taking an internal perspective of a participant.
As illustrated by the diagram, social systems and functions look at explanations and holism. For example, in order to explain the existence of a heart, you can argue that the heart pumps blood around your body. This does have an underlying assumption of the body (higher order system).
