Philosophy of Science 8

what is philosophy?

the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline

what is the creation myth of philosophy?

philosophy was supposedly started on the 25th of May 585 BC by Thales

what is etymology?

the study of word origins

what is the word philosophy derived from?

the greek term "philosophia," meaning love of wisdom

what are useful methods for avoiding mistakes?

study and understand what constitutes 'good' reasoning

what is the philosophical architecture metaphor?

the layout and shape of the building are determined by the beams, yet they remain hidden

what are the different areas of philosophy?

logic and reasoning, value theory, metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophies of mind, language, science, etc.

what was the definition of science when it appeared in English in 1350?

the state or fact of knowing; knowledge or cognizance of something; knowledge of a personal attribute

what is epistemology?

the theory of knowledge or how we know things

what were the recognized sources of knowledge in the Middle Ages?

revelation, the Bible, and Aristotle and the ancients

what us the latin definition of science?

to cut, divide, or separate

what is science?

a branch of study that deals with a connected body of demonstrated truths or observed facts systematically classified and more or less comprehended by general laws, and incorporating trustworthy methods

who was Francis bacon?

Francis Bacon was born on the 22nd of January, 1561
Son of Nicholas and Anne Cooke Bacon
went to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1573
in college, he became acquainted with Aristotle and developed a strong dislike for scholasticism and aristotle
began studying law at Grey's Inn in London in 1576
in 1577 and 78, he went on a mission to Paris with the British ambassador, returning to the UK in 79
completed his law degree in 1582
elected to parliament in 1584 and remained there for 36 years
in parliament, he had 3 goals: 1) uncover truth, 2) serve his country, 3) serve his church
After his father died, he was left penniless, so he tried to get himself appointed into high-paying government positions (unsuccessful under QUEEN ELIZABETH I)
briefly thrown into jail for too many bad debts
in 1617, he was appointed to the house of lords
in 1621, he was impeached for corruption and bribery (pleaded guilty)
banned from holding office and fined 40,000 pounds
died on 9th April, 1626

what is Bacon's take on ants, spiders, and bees?

empiricists, like ants, merely collect things and use them. The rationalists, like spiders, spin webs out of themselves. Bacon advocated for a middle way--that of the bee

what did Bacon think about notebooks?

he considered them to be both abstract machines and concrete forms, and he argued that they enable us to record and organize our experience
also assist in avoiding the limitations of fallible memory

What dud Muntersbjorn note that Bacon was viewed as?

a native empiricist
a pioneering inductivist
an innovative experimentalist
a prescient constructivist

what are the idols of the mind?

similar to what we would call 'cognitive biases'
they are not always clear, but it is clear that they should be avoided
the underlying idea is that the mind needs to be free from all kinds of prejudices before undertaking inquiry

what are the idols of the tribe?

refers to the human tendency to find more order and regularity than really exists in nature
they have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For its false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things.

what are the idols of the cave?

faults in reasoning that arise due to personal likes and dislikes, proclivities and/or background and training
also refers to a propensity to trust a few particular authorities

what is an example of idols of the tribe?

looking at the sky and seeing shapes, rather than just recording what you see

what is an example of idols of the cave?

a chemist might be inclined to see chemistry in everything

what are the idols of the marketplace?

faults which arise from the special significance bestowed upon words

what are the idols of the theater?

refers to errors that can arise from following dogma and not properly inquiring of the real world
also refers to a reliance on superstition, or the more general human propensity to fall into logical fallacies

How did Bacon influence science?

Kuhn argues that Bacon's works did relatively little to advance the existing sciences of the 17th Century
greatest impact of the development of new sciences, like Chemistry
Mendelev developed the periodic table in 1869, which was a paradigm of science conducted along Baconian lines

what are the baconian slogans?

"scientists use induction to transform observations into theories"
a simple observation is unreliable
it is the observation from deliberate experiments that induction needs to operate over
"scientists use material artifacts to transform natural processes into scientific phenomena"
emphasizes the search of underlying causes of a particular phenomena

what are Aristotle's 4 causes?

"why is there a bronze statue"
1. the material cause is the matter which composes the object
--- in the case of the bronze statue, it would be the bronze of the statue
2. the formal cause is the shape of the object
--- in the case of the statue, it would be the fact that it is a statue and not a vase
3. the efficient cause is the sculptor of the statue
--- this corresponds to our modern notion of causation
4. the final cause of the statue is the reason the statue was made
--- this could be to glorify the gods, or even to sell to tourists

how did bacon divide Aristotle's 4 causes?

the formal cause and the final clause were classified as belonging to metaphysics, and as such, being part of philosophy
the efficient and material cause were classified as belonging to the physical sciences or theology

what was New Atlantis (1627)?

an incomplete utopian novel, which describes an idealized institution of scientific research known as "Solomon's House"
formed the inspiration and template for The Royal Society of London (1662)

when did Darwin publish The Origin of Species?

1859

why was the development of evolutionary theory significant?

it became possible to provide an account of the diversity of the flora and fauna of the world without appealing to superstitious beliefs or entities

What was Aristotelian logic?

the distinction between the subject and predicate was fundamental
powerful and subtle, and had been state of the art for years

what did Gottlob Frege do?

in 1879, he published Bergriffsschrift ('Concept Script'), which revolutionized modern logic
turned philisophical attention towards the study of language and logic

what did Frege think about the subject-predicate analysis?

he thought is was too weak
"Brutus kills Caesar"
"brutus"- subject "kills Caesar"- predicate
"Brutus kills..."- function "Caesar"- argument

"Brutus killed Caesar" in notation:

Killed(Brutus, Caesar)
Ǝ(x) Ǝ(y) Killed(x,y)

'suicide' in notation:

Ǝ(x) Killed(x,x)

'fratricide' in notation:

Ǝ(x) Ǝ(y) [Killed (x,y) & brother of (x,y)]

what is Russells Paradox?

Bertrand Russell wrote a letter to Frege on June 16th, 1902
"Let w be the predicate: to be a predicate that cannot be predicated of itself. Can w be predicated of itself? from each answer its opposite follows. Therefore, we can conclude that w is not a predicate"
showed that there was a fundamental flaw in Frege's project

what does Ǝ mean?

there is at least one x such that

Explain the barber metaphor.

consider a barber who shaves exactly those men who do not shave themselves. then, if the barber shaves himself, then the barber is an example of "those men who do not shave themselves," a contraction; if the barber does not shave himself, the the barber is an example of "those me who do not shave themselves", and thus the barber shaves himself-- also a contradiction.

who is Augustus compete?

credited with being the founder of sociology
considered by many to be the first philosopher of science

what are compte's 3 stages of development?

1. theological: people looked for explanations for the mysteries of everyday life and turned to supernatural explanations
2. metaphysical: the causes of many things are explained by an underlying abstract force, such as magnetism
3. positive: people look for laws and not causes

what is positivism?

positivists take observation and experience as the only legitimate source of knowledge
believe that observations are not just sensory experience, but also importantly includes measurement
empirical statements are positive and scientific
non-empirical statements are metaphysical and meaningless

what were Driesch's Discoveries?

embryology
1. with a sea urchin egg, deforming the egg such that the cells in early development are moved around and had no effect upon the development of a normal embryo
2. a single cell from the two, or 4 cell stage, if removed from other cells will still give rise to an embryo in every respect apart from size

what is entelechy?

theory to explain the facts rested upon there being some organizing principle

what were the problems with entelechy?

the principle was supposed to be non-physical and non-spacial
it is a paradigm of the kind of meaningless metaphysical idea that the positivists were against, as it was non-testable by observation or experiment

what were the problems with positivism?

the ideas of "testability" and even "observation" proved difficult to formulate in a precise enough manner
many began to prefer "falsifiability"
it very heavily focused upon regulating language into meaningful and meaningless statements

what is the phlogiston case?

in 1669, Bescher proposed that substances contained 3 kinds of earth: vitrifiable, mercurial, and combustable
Stahl extended the notion to apply it to instances of corrosion (ex: rusting)

what were the problems with pseudo-science?

disciplines were claiming to be scientific when they should not have been
these claims motivated positivists to believe that they had an important role to play in keeping science suitably pure and free of metaphysics

according to suppe, why did positivism arise?

as a result of metaphysical excesses of Hegel and Neo-Hegelians

What would German universities do in philosophy?

the professors would hire people with similar news to them and form "schools of thought"

from 1850-80, what was the main view in German universities?

mechanistic materialism

what is mechanistic materialism?

this view is both materialistic and empirical--involving the search for mechanistic laws

what is Neo-kantianism?

replaced mechanistic materialism
promoted "transcendental idealism"

who was Kant?

an influential philosopher who had resolved many puzzles of the modern era in his Critique for Pure Reason

who is ernst mach?

a neo-kantian, but eventually changed his view to Neo-positivism

what is Neo-positivism?

all empirical statements that arise in a scientific theory must be verifiable--must be reducible to statements about sensations

why was the original formulation of Neo-positivism problematic?

it could stop accommodate mathematics

What theory was Einstein's Theory of Relativity (1905) compatible with?

incompatible with mechanistic materialism, Neo-kantianism and Neo-positivism.
Neo-positivism, however, could be adapted to be reconciled with relativity and quantum theory

what are theoretical terms?

terms defined in relation to phenomena and amount to abbreviations of phenomenal descriptions (ex: mass is a numerical quantity obtained by performing some kind of measurement on certain phenomena)

what is the received view?

A scientific theory is to be axiomatized in mathematical logic

what are the three terms of an axiomatization?

1. logical mathematical terms.
2. Theoretical terms.
3. Observational terms.

what is the beauty of the received view?

as theoretical terms had to be ultimately reducible to phenomenal/observation terms, this should have ensured that anything metaphysical was ruled out

what did the received view give rise to?

The verification theory of meaning, which claimed that the meaning of a term is just a method of verification

what did Wittgenstein do?

gave rise to the idea that ordinary language often does not meet the required standard, and so gives rise to metaphysical confusions
Motivated a quest for a more logically perfect language

what is a problem with positivism?

The OR introduction rule
A standard logical rule, in most classical logical systems
"on a sunny day, the sky appears blue"
By invoking, oh, our introduction, we can add "on a sunny day, the sky appears blue, or the nothingness negates itself." This permits, the introduction of all sorts of metaphysical nonsense.

What is observation versus theory?

an argument that derives from Hillary Putnam
Adhering to this thesis implies that we can claim that there are two important classes of statements: observational statements, and theoretical statements

what are observational statements?

statements that only contain observational terms and logical vocabulary
The cat is on the mat
A wire stretches when weight is applied
Ice is colder than liquid water

What are theoretical statements?

statements containing theoretical terms
Electrons have a negative charge
Wire is made up of atoms
The stress on an object is the force applied per unit area

What are the problems for observation versus theory?

it does not conform to the way that science actually works

how does science actually work?

Science does not proceed down to the observational, rather it goes wherever seems useful
Observational reports often contain theoretical terms, mixed in with them
Observational terms can be detected without the aid of instruments

what is the problem of red?

In the normal course of events, we can see red things, and there are nonetheless almost an infinite number of red things in the universe. However, there are many red things that we can never actually see, because they are light years away.

What are the problems with observation sentences?

if someone holds a very strict view about observation sentences, being based on sensory experience, without the use of instruments, then what is to be made of cases were observations are made by someone wearing glasses or contacts?
What about observations that are made through a window?
Can a sharp line really be drawn between observation and theory ?

Who is Van Fraassen?

he thinks that some of the arguments rest upon a confusion between observing and observing that
Consider the case of showing a tennis ball to a member of a primitive tribe

why does Van fraassen think that the term observable is vague?

he thinks that drawing non-arbitrary distinctions between observable versus non-observable, derive from the fact that observable is a vague predicate
He also thinks that indirect observation is just fine
When a person sees a vapor trail in the sky and says look, there's a jet, no normal person would have a problem

what did positivism applied psychology give rise to?

Behaviorism

what kind of stimuli and responses are allowed in behaviorism?

observable ones
no un servables, like thoughts are banned

Who are some key figures in behaviorism?

Watson, Skinner, and Pavlov

what is the speed of light?

300,000 km/s, but only in a vacuum

What are the two important kinds of inferences?

inductive inference and deductive inference

what are the positives of deductive inferences?

provided they are properly constructed, and their premises are true, then they will give necessary or certain conclusions
Are whales are mammals
All mammals breathe air
Therefore, all whales breathe air

what are the problems with deductive inferences?

they do not really provide more information than was already in the premises

what happens when there is a trade-off between informativeness and certainty?

inductive inference

What are the positives about inductive inferences?

you go from a limited number of cases to attempt to draw conclusions about a general class of cases
Every crow I have ever seen is black
Thus, perhaps, all crows are black

what are the negatives of inductive inferences?

is the term perhaps all crows are black true?
no
There are albino crows, which are not black
There is also a species of crow, known as magpies, which are black and white

What are the inductive fallacies?

hasty generalization, unrepresentative sample, false analogy, slothful induction, and the fallacy of exclusion

What is hasty generalization?

an inductive fallacy that occurs when a sample sizes too small

what is unrepresentative sample?

An inductive fallacy that occurs when the sample upon which the induction is based does not represent the whole population

what is false analogy?

an inductive fallacy that is based upon two or more objects or events that are relatively dissimilar

what is slothful induction?

A logical fallacy in which the conclusion of an otherwise strong, inductive argument is denied, despite evidence to the contrary

What is the fallacy of exclusion?

an inductive fallacy where important evidence which would undermine the conclusion of an inductive argument are simply ignored
This can be a case of cherry, picking the evidence appealed to

What is an example of hasty generalization?

suppose the only British people, you know are professor Berkeley, Ozzy Osbourne, and Robert Plant. You could infer that all British people have long hair.

What is an example of a false analogy?

A watch is a complex and precise device that is designed by an intelligent watchmaker. Similarly, the universe is an extremely complex system, and must be the product of intelligent design

what is an example of unrepresentative sample?

two white men do not represent the entire population of the UK

What is an example of slothful induction?

Leslie has had 12 accidents in the last six months, yet she insists that it is just a coincidence and it's not her fault

What is an example of the fallacy of exclusion?

A picture is worth 1000 words

What is the Sunday problem?

most scientific research takes place during normal business hours. A consequence of this is that many findings are not tested over weekends. This means that there is no empirically based guarantee that the laws of nature function exactly the same on every day of the week.

what is the problem of psychological research being conducted on undergraduate students?

since it is so common, this should mean that the conclusions of most psychological research should only apply to undergraduate students

what is the moral that can be drawn from all of these considerations?

Scientific theories will always be under determined by the evidence

explain an example of a set of facts or observations that have multiple theories that can explain them

returning home and finding a messy house

what is Occam's razor?

it states that entity should not be multiplied beyond necessity
It is also known as the principle of parsimony
It can be summarized as keep it simple silly