What is science? Flashcards
science’s claim of superiority was based on what four principles?
- Realism. There is a physical world with independent objects, which can be under- stood by human intellect.
- Objectivity. Knowledge of the physical reality does not depend on the observer. Consequently, ‘objective’ agreement among people is possible, irrespective of their worldviews. Science aims to uncover this knowledge so that it becomes public, verifiable and useable.
- Truth. Scientific statements are true when they correspond to the physical reality.
- Rationality. Truth is guaranteed because scientific statements are based on sound method. Scientific statements are not arbitrary guesses, but justified conclusions grounded on convincing evidence and good reasoning, and expressed with the right level of confidence.
What is meant by the correspondence theory of truth?
a statement is true when it corresponds with reality. Assumes that there is a physical reality which has priority and which the human mind tries to understand. First formulated by Aristotle
What is meant by the philosophical view of skepticism ? Who was it first formulated by?
philosophical view
that does not deny the existence of a physical reality, but denies that humans can have reliable knowledge of it; first formulated by Pyrrho
of Ellis
What took over education in the middle ages and who/ where did these views mostly come from? (person)
As the Catholic Church took over education in the Middle Ages, its views became dominant. These came mostly from Augustine (354–430 CE), who adopted Aristotle’s logic and sought to reconcile it with Christian theology.
Where did true knowledge come from according to Augustine?
According to Augustine true knowledge was knowledge based on God’s revela-tions
What was the name of Galilei’s final book and describe and experiment he used to test whether the velocity of a rolling ball was constant, as claimed by Aristotle, or accelerating, as Galilei thought.
Two new sciences: He took a board 12 cubits long and half a cubit wide (about 5.5 m by 23 cm) and cut a groove, as straight and smooth as possible, down the centre. He inclined the plane and rolled brass balls down it, timing their descent with a water clock – a large vessel that emptied through a thin tube into a glass. After each run he weighed the water that had run out – his measurement of elapsed time – and compared it with the distance the ball had travelled. On some trials the ball would roll for 3 cubits, on others it would roll for the full length of 12 cubits. Galilei observed that the time required for 12 cubits was not four times longer than the time required for 3 cubits, as predicted by Aristotle, but only about twice as long, in line with his own predictions. On the basis of many measurements with the board, Galilei formulated the law of falling bodies, which stated that the distance travelled was proportional to the square of the time travelled (d ~ t2).
How did Gower (1997) question the picture of Galilei as the first experimentalist? (2/3)
Gower (1997) documented how Galilei in reality was a transition figure steeped in the Aristotelian tradition. His 1638 book was not a work in which Galilei presented a new law on the basis of empirical evidence, but a treatise in which Galilei derived a new law from Euclidian geometry on the basis of demonstration, which he subsequently illustrated with a few empirical observations. Galilei also referred more often to thought experiments than real experiments in his writings. Thought experiments were experiments his readers could easily relate to, because they depended on reason and imagination rather than on the use of unknown equipment.
What did Bacon contribute to the rise of science? (2)
Francis Bacon promoted the use of systematic observation and inductive reasoning as the road to new knowledge. When investigating a new topic. Bacon recommended beginning with the collection of a large number of facts in a mechanical way, without theoretical prejudice, and to put them into tables for a better understanding, however when deriving conclusions from the tables, Bacon warned readers not to jump to
conclusions
What did Bacon warn readers not to search for and what three tables did he encourage them to make use of?
Bacon warned readers not to search exclusively for positive evidence, but to make use of three types of tables. The first comprised of ‘Essence and Presence’, all instances in which the phenomenon under investigation was present. The second table contained ‘Deviation or Absence in Proximity’. It provided a list of instances matched to the first table in which the phenomenon was absent, even though the circumstances were very similar. By putting the second table next to the first, one could see which instances were critical for the phenomenon. Finally, Bacon advised to make a third table of ‘Degrees or Comparison’, including instances in which the phenomenon was present in different degrees. This again allowed searching for critical characteristics.
What did Bacon call rudiments of interpretation or the first vintage?
The outcome of the first phase of exploratory data collection and tabulation
What was to follow the rudiments of interpretation?
researchers were urged to verify their interpretations by means of further, targeted experimental histories.
What criticisms did von Leibig have against the Baconater?
He was ridiculed by von Leibig who asked what the point was of fact collection without a pre-proposed question or goal. According to him, science started from imagination of the researcher, not blind data collection.
How did Isaac Newton’s view of the scientific method change?
Newton’s view of the scientific method went from an ambivalent attitude about the roles of theory and observation to an approach that was not so different from Aristotle but emphasized induction more. According to Newton, first principles had to be based on observation, experimentation and inductive reasoning instead of on self-evident axioms.
What was Christian Huygens input in this area? (2)
Huygens was one of the first to explicitly defend the virtues of inductive logic. He stated that
(1) it was possible to verify principles from their effects when a large number of phenomena in line with the principles were collected and that
(2) truth was particularly guaranteed when the principles allowed researchers to make new predictions and verify them.
Something had to be developed because induction led to highly probable conclusions, not necessary truth. Name and describe this
a definition of probability was needed. A mathematical definition and the degree of belief were proposed. Also, hypotheses got more appreciation. Herschel argued that temporary co-existence of rivalling theories was not bad, because a choice could be made between them by formulating and testing hypotheses.
