Philosophy of Science

Grounded Philosophy Hannah Arendt

Philosophy must be understood from experience, social and political reality; we theorize from the world as it appears to acting and speaking human beings

2 ways all philosophy of science is grounded

• response to earlier schools of thought

• Response to the political conditions birthing these ideas

The reformation had these 3 effects

• undermining ecclesiastical authority

• Secularization as an unintended consequence

• The Enlightenment ideal of moral autonomy

Philosophy of Science

the branch of philosophy that examines the foundations, methods, and implications of scientific knowledge

Philosophy of Science seeks to answer these fundamental questions

• What distinguishes scientific knowledge from non-scientific knowledge claims?

• How can scientific theories develop and change over time?

• What is the nature of scientific explanation?

• Can science provide objective knowledge about reality?

• What is the influence of social positionality on scientific inquiry?

Ontology

The study of being or existence and its basic categories and relationships

3 key questions in ontology

• what is real

• what kind of entities exist

• how are entities structured and related

3 positions in ontology

• realism

• constructivism

• instrumentalism

Epistemology

The study of the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge

3 key questions in Epistemology

• what is knowledge

• how do we acquire knowledge

• what distinguishes knowledge from beliefs and opinions

Positions in epistemology

• empiricism vs rationalism: is knowledge based on experience or reason?

• induction vs deduction: can science justify general laws from limited observations

Methodology

The systematic study of methods, spanning the principles and assumptions that guide how we gather scientific knowledge

3 positions in methodology

• Positive Methodology: assumes reality is objective and can be studied using empirical observation and experimentation

• Interpretivist Methodology: assumes reality is socially constructed and must be understood through meaning and context

• Critical Methodology: examines how power structure influence knowledge production

How methodology shapes science

Determines what counts as valid knowledge; determines what we observe or ignore; reflects historical and cultural contexts

Logical nonsense

untrue statements like this circle is a square

Logical truth/analytical A priori statements

the method for determining whether or not the statement is true or false is not observation, but logical analysis: this circle is round

Metaphysics

statements which cannot be verified through observation

Empirical truth/ Synthetic A Posteriori statement

statements that we need to observe to verify their truth value

Rationalism

holds that reason, rather than sensory experience, is the primary source of knowledge

A Priori reasoning

independent of empirical observation

Key aspects of rationalism

• mathematization of nature: the universe is structured according to logical and mathematical principles, and these can be understood through reason

• Innate Ideas: some concepts, such as logic or causality, are not arrived from experience, but are pre-existing structures of the mind

• Deductive reasoning: knowledge should be built using axioms and logical deduction, rather than relying solely on observation

• Skepticism about the senses: empirical observation can be deceptive, as things are not always how they appear, so rationalists distrust sensory experience as the source of scientific knowledge

Empiricism

counter movement to rationalism; all knowledge comes from sensory experience rather than innate ideas or pure reason; inductive reasoning (a posteriori)

Key aspects of Empiricism

• Tabula rasa (blank slate): the mind starts as a blank slate, and all that we know comes from experience

• Sensory observation as the basis of knowledge: science must be based on what we can observe and test empirically

• Inductive reasoning: knowledge is built by generalizing from experiences

• Skepticism about metaphysics: abstract concepts like “innate ideas” are questioned by empiricists, because they cannot be grounded in direct experience

Hume’s 3 Skeptical Arguments against empiricism

• The problem of causality: we never observe causality, only that one event regularly follows another

• The problem of induction: all inductive reasoning assumes that the future will resemble the past, but this cannot be logically proven

• The problem of the self: we never observe an unchanging self, only a bundle of perceptions that are constantly changing

Kantian Transcendental Idealism

• the mind actively structures experiences

• Synthetic A priori statement: not derived from experience but still informative about the world

• Phenomena vs Noumena: we do not perceive things as they are in themselves (noumena) but only as they appear to us (phenomena)

Descriptive theories (What is?)

Purpose: to describe and explain reality as it is, without making recommendations and while suspending judgment

Prescriptive theories (what should be done?)

to offer guidelines or best practices for achieving desired outcomes

Normative Theories (What is ideal or just?)

To determine what ought to be based on ethical, moral, or societal values

Causal Explanations (what caused this to happen?)

identifying the necessary or sufficient conditions for bringing about an event; a cause precedes its effect, and it was necessary or sufficient to bring it about

Functional Explanations (What role does this play in maintaining the system?)

Phenomena contribute to a higher-order system; something’s functioning brings about stability, efficiency, or survival

Intentional Explanations (What were the agent’s reasons?)

Focus is on beliefs, desires, or ambitions of the agent; people act on rational choices, imitative behavior or cultural norms

Social sciences have a unique position

they use all 3 types of explanations: causal, functional, and intentional

Hegel’s dialectical idealism

History unfolds through a necessary progression of ideas; weaponized by nationalists who believed their country represented a further step in historical progress than its neighbors

Bergson and Dilthey’s Lebensphilosophie

Emphasizing intuition, organic processes, and the unique essence of life over logic and empirical science; weaponized into right wing romantic nationalism, which portrays nations as mystical entities impregnated with a national spirit

Heidegger’s existential metaphysics

A theory of being that was abstract, poetic, and resistant to scientific analysis; was an active nazi supporter whose attacks on calculative, technical thinking justified Nazi anti-intellectualism

Members of the Vienna Circle

• Mortiz Schlich: founder and leader

• Rudolf Carnap: developed linguistic framworks, logical syntax and verificationsim

• Otto Neurath: unity of science idea; isotype pictography

• Hans Reichenbach: Philosophy should serve science

• Phillip Frank: believed science was about organizing experiences in useful ways

Counter-project of the Vienna Circle

• No unverifiable claims

• No grand theories of history

• No appeals to intuition or Volk

3 elements of the Vienna Circle Project

• the verification principle

• Unity of Science

• Philosophy as logical analysis

Verification principle

Any statement or proposition is only meaningful if it is a tautology (an analytic a priori statement) and empirically verifiable (a synthetic a posteriori statement); excludes metaphysics

Unity of Science

A comprehensive vision of how all forms of inquiry, from physics to the social sciences, can be integrated into a single, coherent, and empirically grounded framework; project of harmonization and interoperability

Characteristics of the unity of science idea

• observations need to be expressed as quantifiable data

• one formal language

• reductionism: psychology is a biological phenomenon, biological systems might be reduced to chemical reactions, which are explained by the laws of physics

• Core to the periphery: physics models should be exported to social sciences

• reduces irrationality and extremism

General theory of relativity

massive objects like the sun warp spacetime, causing light to bend around them; tested during a total solar ecipse

2 problems with the verification principle

• Theoretical concepts

• Problem of induction

Intension

The conjunction of general properties that together define a concept

Extension

The set of all (real-llife) phenomena that the concept refers to

Well defined concept

Based on solid theoretical arguments that explain the intension of that concept and that denote all and only cases that concept in reality

Reflective Concept

• Concept → indicators (effect)

• There is an interdependence of factors

• removing an indicator does not change the concept

Formative Concept

• Indicators → concept (cause)

• No interchangeability of factors

• removing an indicator changes the concept

Theoretical Concepts

Explain something in the facts that is not apparent from observation alone; leads to the development of new knowledge to be tested

Hume’ problem of induction

Argued that inductive reasoning lacks a rational justification because we cannot prove that the future will resemble the past

Probability and Confirmation theory

Tried to reformulate induction probabilistically, arguing that science does not prove laws but assigns increasing probability to them based on repeated observations

Deduction

New information cannot change the truth value of the conclusion anymore; and analytical transformation of what we already know

Induction

New information can change the value of the conclusion; not an analytical transformation

Observation (empirical basis)

Science begins with systematic observations of phenomena, ensuring that data collection is structured and not based on naive induction

Testing (empirical validation)

Experiments or observations evaluate predictions

Evaluation and Iteration

The cycle repeats: hypotheses are refined, new tests are conducted, and theories evolve, ensuring that scientific knowledge is always provisional and improving over time, rather than based on one-time inductive leaps

Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory

designed to explain human behavior through concepts like the unconscious, repression, and defense mechanisms

Marxist theory of revolutions

originally made specific predictions about the course of history, particularly that capitalism would inevitably collapse due to its internal contradictions, leading to a proletarian revolution

Closed Systems

every piece of evidence could be explained within their framework

Falsification

• Science is about making bold predictions that could be wrong; science is about trying to prove things false

• Theories that can never be proven false are not scientific

• Science progresses by eliminating bad theories, not by proving theories right

• No scientific theory is ever final - it remains tentative

• good science welcomes refutation; pseudoscience dodges it

Big Science

large-scale, government-funded research focused on national security and technical dominance

Science as a linear, cumulative process

the dominant view presented science as a steady march toward truth, where new discoveries seamlessly built upon old knowledge

The progressive narrative

Scientific advances were portrayed as leading humanity toward a more advances, rational, and technologically superior future

Western Perspective

Science was framed as an objective, self-correcting endeavor, immune to ideology, as a testament to the superiority of democratic, capitalist societies

Soviet Perspective

Science was framed as an objective, self-correcting endeavor, immune to ideology, and a testament to the superiority of democratic, capitalist societies

Quine-Duhem Thesis