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SCIE403 2+
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is the scientific method? | Systematic way to prove something is true. Probabilities, hypotheses. A step-by-step process used to explore observations, test ideas, and answer questions about the natural world using evidence |
| Where did the scientific method come from? | Aristotle and Carl Popper |
| The idea that there is one scientific method | is a myth. The myth is a cultural story repeatedly told as truth. The myth is an idea of one specific method taught to children, apprentices, and outsiders to simplify complex reality. |
| Inference reasoning | Using things we know to learn about things we don't know |
| Types of inference | Deductive and ampliative |
| Which reasoning does science involve? Deductive or Ampliative? | It involves both types of reasoning, some sciences have different priorities |
| Deductive reasoning | Grounded in tradition. Knowledge preserving (assuming existing is correct). Knowledge flows from existing claims. Start by learning from a claim, facts, formulas. Theoretical physics, math, comp scie |
| Ampliative reasoning | Knowledge creating. Knowledge flows from observation. Includes inductive and abductive approaches. Working from observations to a generalization. Forensics, Biology |
| Deductive Inference example | All swans are white. This is a swan. Therefore the swan is.... |
| Ampliative, Inductive Inference example | Conclusions drawn from observations. This swan is white, this swan is white, this swan is white, therefore swans are... |
| Key weakness of inductive inference | There is a possibility that there is a black swan or another observation that will challenge this. Probability of a black swan throws this reasoning out the window. |
| Ampliative, Abductive reasoning | Most likely conclusion from observations, doesn't generalize. Tied more to probabilities. All swans I have observed in this region are white. Therefore, all swans, in this location and potentially elsewhere, are likely to be... |
| Eurocentric story of science | Ancient Greece then Renaissance, Scientific Revolutions, then Enlightenment |
| Ancient Greece | Greek philosophers fascinated by questions of reality, matter, and change. Guiding belief: logic and order governed the natural world. Knowledge achieved through reason |
| Plato | Focus on theoretical/mathematical proofs. Universal vs particular. Platonic ideal: Universal forms exist independent of all material things. Natural world innately imperfect. Philosophers had key insights. BCE |
| Aristotle | Plato's student. Knowledge gained through cycles of deduction and observation. Deductive reasoning most important. Organon method. BCE |
| The scientific revolution | 16th and 17th centuries. Invention of technologies that challenge Aristotle. Printing press, telescope, thermometer. |
| Rationalism | Science is rational/ deductive |
| Rene Descartes | 1596-1650. Rationalist. French philosopher, scientist, mathematician. I think, therefore I am. The natural world possesses a few fundamental properties and obeys universal laws. Separation of mind-matter |
| Rene Descartes beliefs | Rationalism. Knowledge obtained through senses is fallible. Our capacity to think can't be taken away. God gave those universal laws. Deductive reasoning from universal laws is the best way to certain knowledge |
| Empiricism | Science is empirical/ Inductive |
| Francis Bacon | 1561-1626. Empiricism. English philosopher. "Father" of induction. Reliable knowledge should be based on observation and experimentation. Knowledge of nature and the use of technical instruments enables humans to control nature. |
| Francis Bacon continued | Builds on Aristotles Organon. Challenged Aristotle's reliance on deductive reasoning, tradition, and the idea that all knowledge had already been found. Truth reasoned from first principles |
| Idols of the mind that lead us astray-Francis Bacon | The tribe, the cave, the marketplace, the theatre. |
| Idols of the tribe | Human understanding=reality of the world. Seeing is believing. Downfalls: seeing isn't always believing, mind could deceive us |
| Idols of the cave | Problems of individuals. Subjective bias. |
| Idols of the Marketplace | Use of words to mislead |
| Idols of theatre | Received ideas. Political ideas lead us astray, dogma that we have. |
| Who made efforts to marry rationalism and empiricism into something called science? | Christian Huygens and William Whewell |
| Christian Huygens | Dutch mathematician and physicist. Made efforts to marry rationalism and empiricism |
| William Whewell | English philosopher. Philosophy of inductive science. Coined the term scientist in 1833 |
| The Royal Society | Promoted natural knowledge. Founded in 1660 in London, received Royal Charter in 1662. Published world's first scientific periodical in 1665. Published Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica in 1687 |
| Isaac Newton | 1643-1727. English mathematician, physicist, alchemist, theologian, inventor. Key figure in Scientific revolution. Established classical mechanics and idea of universal laws of nature. President of Royal society |
| Isaac Newton had Ideas | foundational for physics and inspired many Enlightenment writers. Nobody challenged his ideas, |
| The Enlightenment (age of reason) | Late 17th to 18th Century. Revival of interest in Greek philosophy and logic. Application of scientific ways of thinking to other realms. Radical transformation of cultural and political ideas |
| The enlightenment-radical transformation of cultural and political ideas | opposition to monarchy, separation of powers (church and state), equality, liberty and individual rights, free market capitalism |
| 1776-1800s | 1776-American Revolution, 1789-French revolution, 1791-Haitian Revolution, 1800s-Latin American revolutions |
| Immanuel Kant | 1724-1804. Was part of the enlightenment. Critique of pure reason. Synthesized rationalism and empiricism. Human understanding is the source of general laws of nature |
| Cultural Context for Immanuel Kant | Kant reacted to emergence of science in 16th and 17th CE. Newton's success spread confidence in power of reason to understand nature's laws and improve human life. For Kant, enlightenment is thinking for oneself. |
| 20th Century | Rise and fall of positive knowledge. Assumption that science is a type of positive knowledge |
| Auguste Comte | 1798-1857. Founder of positivism. First philosopher of science. Law of three stages: theological, metaphysical, positive (science). Science comes close to truth without reaching it. |
| Auguste Comte came up with six fundamental sciences. What were they? | Mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, sociology |
| Albert Einstein | 1879-1955. German born theoretical physicist and mathematician. Theories on relativity challenged Newtonian classical mechanics. Inspired by and also rejected positivism. Knowledge is relative to point of observation |
| Albert Einstein was inspired by and inspired | new cultural movements (cubism, surrealism, existentialism) |
| Logical positivism/empiricism | European philosophical movement in early 20th century in Vienna. Emphasized induction and empiricism: meaningful statements are those that can be verified through experience. Extension of positivism (reliable knowledge based on observation |
| Who were the main two people in the Vienna circle for logical positivism? | Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein |
| Vienna Circle-Scientific attitude | Unified science. Opposition to metaphysics (focus on clarity, no unsolvable riddles, philisophical problems can and should be turned into empirical ones). Emphasis on observation. Banned metaphyics and ethics, not philosophy. |
| Sir Karl Popper | 1902-1994. Part of Vienna Circle. Addressed the problem of induction. Shift from verifiability to falsifiability. Emphasized skepticism. Continued to separate science from ethics. Good scientific statement is that which can be proven wrong |
| The Logic of Scientific Discovery | Karl Popper's book. Falsification, not verification through observation, is the way to distinguish science from non-science. Scientist should make bold claims, then try to refute them |
| Covering law models | Carl Hempel. Deductive and probabilistic |
| Hypothetico-deductive method | First proposed by William Whewell as counter to method of induction. Observations need to be organized around concepts. Hypothesis organizes ideas |
| Hypothetico-deductive method and Karl Popper | Observations take place within a 'horizon of expectations'. Scientists invent regularities (conjectures) which are put to the test. Empirical evidence provides refutation of conjectures. Can never establish that theories are true, can only falsify them |
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