The Demarcation Problem Flashcards
What is non-scientific knowledge?
Knowledge that makes no claim to be scientific.
Examples: history, linguistics, philosophy, religion, art.
What are the characteristics of science?
- It is about the natural world and natural processes.
- Its aim is to explain how the world works (fact-finding practices).
- The explanations are empirically testable.
- The explanations can be proven wrong also even though they are thoroughly tested.
Why is demarcation of science important?
- For many years, various research areas have exaggerated their scientific status and proclaimed to provide knowledge that is scientific even though it is not.
- Science is an important source of knowledge in our everyday life and it guides our decisions, e.g. when developing/prescribing medicine.
What is pseudo-science?
- Knowledge that claims to be scientific, but it isn’t.
- Unwilling to recognise the data/observations that refute their explanations.
- Its aim is to acquire the credibility of scientific knowledge.
- It appears outwardly to be science, e.g. apply scientific methods, arranging conferences, journals and associations that share many of the superficial characteristics of science, but do not satisfy the quality criteria.
Why is cognitive science a science?
- Concerned with natural processes because it aims at finding explanations of the organisation of the mind and its mental processes.
- Raises and investigates natural questions, e.g. how do we perceive objects in the environment?
- Experimental approach (measuring, testing, neuroimaging, reaction times, eye gazes, digit span task)
- Rediscovering itself as a field, acknowledging insufficient approaches, e.g. shift from behaviourism to cognitive revolution.
Why is cognitive science not a science?
- Investigates concepts that can be difficult to both define and measure. E.g. measuring memory, happiness, anxiety.
- The variables are human beings = individual differences.
- Replication crisis: unable to replicate results from fundamental studies.
What is the demarcation problem?
The problem of finding a demarcation criterion that can distinguish science from non-science and pseudo-science.
All pseudo-science is non-science. True or false?
True! Because the knowledge of pseudo-science is not scientific.
All non-science is pseudo-science. True or false?
False! Knowledge can be non-scientific without claiming to be scientific.
E.g. a cloud is non-science, but it is not pretending to be science, so it is not pseudoscience.
What is epistemology?
The theory / study of human knowledge and how knowledge is acquired.
Considered a branch of philosophy.
Questions such as “What is knowledge?”, “How is knowledge acquired?”, “What do people know?”, “How do we know what we know?”
What is ontology?
The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of human beings existence as individual, in society and in the universe.
It is also known as the theory of objects. It seeks to distinguish different types of objects (e.g. concrete/abstract, real/ideal, independent/dependent) and their relationships.
What is “a posteriori knowledge”?
A posteriori knowledge is knowledge that can only be justified with appeal to experience of the world.
What is “a priori knowledge”?
- A priori knowledge is knowledge that can be justified without appeal to experience of the world.
- Truth by definition, rather than truth by experience.
- Universal and necessary knowledge, not by accident. E.g. mathematics.
- Introduced by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).
What is metaphysics?
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time.
According to A.A. Derksen, what are the three major reasons why demarcation is sometimes difficult?
- Science changes over time.
- Science is heterogenous (i.e. forskelligartet)
- Established science itself is not free of the defect characteristics of pseudoscience.
What is Popper’s solution to the demarcation problem?
Falsificationism!
A system is scientific if it is falsifiable, i.e. capable of being tested by experience and refuted/falsified by experience.
According to Kuhn, when should the demarcation take place?
The demarcation should only take place in the period of normal science. It is only at this point, you are able to find the characteristics by which science can be distinguished from non-science.
What is Kuhn’s demarcation criterion?
The capability of puzzle-solving.
When a result contradicts the existing paradigm, it becomes a puzzle for the researcher.
Example astronomy vs. astrology:
Astronomy has been a puzzle-solving activity and is therefore a science.
On the other hand, astrology do not have such puzzles in their discipline and astrology has therefore never been a science.
