Week 5: Philosophy of science - Ideal science Flashcards
What is Philosophy of Science?
- Analyse techniques used in the scientific field, such as experiments, observation, and construction of theories.
- Philosophical reflection can uncover assumptions that are implicit in science.
- Delve up and critically question assumptions that scientists make.
- Think through the consequences of holding these assumptions.
What is falsification?
According to Karl Popper, the foundations of a scientific theory lie in the fact that is should be falsifiable. It can be proven wrong when being tested against experience. Theories that are not falsifiable are considered pseudo-science (e.g. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory) whereas theories that are falsifiable are considered scientific.
What is verificationism?
Verificationism as a view on what science is means that the truth of something is proved. Scientific statements can be verified empirically, through observations.
The logical empiricists were very strict about what exactly counted as science. Only that which could objectively be observed can be considered science.
Something should be verifiable in principle. For example, an aline in space with five eyes, even though we cannot go there to see it, is still verifiable.
What counterarguments are given to verificationism?
- It is too strict. It excludes real sciences (e.g. psychology).
- Induction problem: a limited number of observations can never prove a theory to be true. Induction is reasoning from single statements to universal statements.
What is the demarcation problem?
In philosophy of science, the demarcation problem is the question of how to distinguish between science and non-science.
What is confirmationism?
Confirmationism is the replacement of verificationism by the logical empiricists. It argues that scientific statements can be confirmed through observations.
What was an issue with confirmationism?
Confirmationism was too loose as a criterion and resulted in all sorts of pseudoscientific statements being confirmed. Thus, confirmationism did not solve the demarcation problem.
Who were the logical empiricists?
One of the goals of logical empiricists was to make philosophy more scientific, hoping this would help its advancement. THey were particularly focused on the objectivity of science, believing that scientific questions could be solved in a fully objective manner. Thus, for logical empiricists, science was “a paradigmatically rational activity, the surest route to truth that exists”.
What distinction did the logical empiricists make?
- Context of discovery: the actual historical process scientists use to reach the accomplishment of a theory (subjective, not objectively ruled).
- Context of justification: the means by which scientists try to justify the theory they already accomplished, which includes testing, searching for relevant evidence, and comparing it with rival ones (objective, logical).
The logical empiricists emphasized the importance of focusing on the context of justification as this was objective and much ignored the context of discovery as this was subjective.
