Week 2 - Logical Positivism Flashcards
Three grand (epistemologies) theories of knowledge
Rationalism - Think-based
Empiricism - Observation-based
Idealism - Experience-based
The linguistic turn
Helps structure knowledge non-metaphysically
Uses logic to organise sensory experiences
Logical reducibility requirement
For a theory to be considered scientific, it must be able to be reduced from theory to empirical law to individual observations
The two building blocks of Logical Positivism?
Synthetic statement - verified by observations
Analytic statement - verified by logic
The unity of science ideal?
Every scientific field is connected with logics in the centre, and everything can be reduced to basic physics.
What are the two main problems with Logical Positivism?
1, Theoretical concepts: there are concepts that explain unobservable phenomena, and cannot be reduced anymore, but are too fundamental to lose.
2, Induction logic: from observations to generalisations. The truth value is subject to change when new observations are made.
What are the adjustments of the Logical Positivism model?
- Allow theoretical concepts: hence a distinction should be made between theoretical and observational language
- Allow induction logic: hence a distinction should be made between true and likely-to-be-true statements
Hypothetical-Deductive method
Observations -> Empirical law -> Theory -> New hypotheses -> Back to observations
Types of theoretical concepts
Reflective concept: the concept infects other elements (e.g. organisational performance)
Formative concept: the concept is formed by multiple elements (e.g. democracy)
Two types of meaning in theoretical concepts
Intensional (logical) meaning
Extensional (empirical) meaning
(e.g. month - a period of time that has approximately 30 days (int.) and January, February, etc. (ext.))
