Chalmers chapter 1

What is the vision of empiricists?

the hold the idea that all knowledge should be derived from ideas implanted by way of sense perception

What are concerns that are involved in the claim that science is derived from facts?

• what is the nature of these facts and how are scientists meant to have access to them?

• how are the laws and theories that constitute our knowledge derived from the facts once they have been obtained?

People can see different things but this doesn’t mean that

• we see just what we like

• what we see in various situations doesnt remain fairly stable

• observers don’t see the same thing (they just perceive it differently)

What are facts according to empiricists?

• directly given to careful, unprejudiced observers via the senses

• prior to and independent of theory

• firm and reliable foundations for scientific knowledge

what is criticism on the idea that empiricists hold on facts?

• before an observer can formulate and assent to an observation statement he or she must be in possession of the appropriate conceptual framework and a knowledge of how to appropriately apply it. 

• the search for and formulation of facts are knowledge-dependent

• there is a transformation in what were considered to be observable facts