Philosophy of Science: Chapters 1 to 5

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the core concepts, figures, and definitions in the history and philosophy of science across Chapters 1 through 5, including empiricism, confirmation, falsificationism, and Kuhnian paradigms.

Scientia

A Latin word translating roughly as knowledge, which historically referred particularly to the results of logical demonstrations that reveal general and necessary truths, especially associated with mathematics and geometry.

Natural Philosophy

A pre-Scientific Revolution category of inquiry focused on the causes of things, encompassing fields such as physics and astronomy.

Natural History

A pre-Scientific Revolution category of inquiry dedicated to describing the contents of the world, encompassing fields such as botany and zoology.

William Whewell

The nineteenth-century figure who coined the term "scientist."

Broad View of Science

The perspective that science is any work that assesses ideas and solves problems in a way guided by observational evidence, considered a basic human activity found in all cultures.

Narrow View of Science

The perspective that science is a specific cultural phenomenon localized in space and time that must be distinguished from other forms of investigating the world.

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy that deals with questions involving the nature of knowledge, the justification of beliefs, and rationality.

Metaphysics

A controversial branch of philosophy that deals with the most general questions concerning the nature of reality itself.

Descriptive Theory

A theory that attempts to describe what actually goes on in some area, or what something is actually like, without making value judgments.

Normative Theory

A theory that makes value judgments by addressing what should go on, or what might be good or bad.

Objectivity (Impartiality Sense)

A meaning of objectivity defined as the absence of bias, representing impartiality or fairness as the opposite of subjective.

Objectivity (Mind-Independence Sense)

A meaning of objectivity referring to whether something exists independently of thought, language, human minds, or a particular point of view.

Empiricism

A diverse family of philosophical views asserting the fundamental importance of experience in explaining knowledge, justification, and rationality, holding that experience is the only source of genuine knowledge about the world.

Sensationalism

The classical empiricist view associated with Locke, Berkeley, and Hume holding that sensations (such as patches of color and sound) are all the mind can access, viewing the mind largely as a pattern-recognition device.

External World Skepticism

A form of skepticism that questions whether we can ever know anything about a physical world that might lie behind the flow of sensations we receive.

Inductive Skepticism

A form of skepticism made vivid by David Hume that questions why we have reason to believe patterns found in past experience will hold in the future.

Phenomenalism

The view held by some empiricists that our concept of "the world" is merely a concept of a patterned collection of sensations, denying that we can meaningfully speak of objects existing behind sensations.

Rationalism

The philosophical position held by Descartes and Leibniz asserting that pure reasoning can serve as a route to knowledge that does not depend on experience.

Immanuel Kant

The philosopher who argued that thinking involves an interaction between sensory experience and preexisting mental structures (such as space, time, and causation) that cannot themselves be derived from experience.

Absolute Idealism

Hegel's philosophical view that a single reality as a whole has a spiritual or rational character, wherein human history is a process of a "world spirit" gradually reaching consciousness of itself.

Verifiability Theory of Meaning

A logical positivist principle stating that the meaning of a sentence consists in its method of verification; if a sentence has no possible method of verification, it is considered meaningless.

Analytic Statement

A sentence that is true or false solely in virtue of the meaning of the words within it, regardless of how the world happens to be.

Synthetic Statement

A sentence that is true or false in virtue of both the meaning of the words within it and how the world actually is.

A Priori Knowledge

Knowledge that is known or knowable independently of evidence gained through sensory experience.

A Posteriori Knowledge

Knowledge that relies directly on evidence obtained from sensory experience.

Context of Discovery

A distinction introduced by Reichenbach referring to the empirical, historical, and psychological aspects of how scientific theories are originally conceived.

Context of Justification

A distinction introduced by Reichenbach referring to the study of the logical structure and evidentiary relations supporting a scientific theory.

Operationalism

The view holding that scientists should use language in such a way that all theoretical terms are tied closely to direct observational tests.

Duhem-Quine Thesis

The holistic theory of testing stating that a scientific hypothesis cannot be tested in isolation because it only yields observational predictions when combined with other background assumptions.

Scientific Realism

The position that science can only be properly understood as an attempt to describe the hidden, unobservable structures that give rise to observable phenomena.

Deductive Inference

An argument pattern where the truth of the premises, combined with valid reasoning, logically guarantees the truth of the conclusion with certainty.

Non-Deductive Inference

An argument pattern where the premises make the conclusion likely or probable, but do not guarantee its truth.

Confirmation

A relationship of partial, non-decisive support between empirical evidence and a hypothesis that increases the hypothesis's degree of credibility without constituting conclusive proof.

Inductive Generalization

A type of non-deductive argument that uses observations of particular cases to arrive at a general conclusion.

Statistical Syllogism

A type of non-deductive argument that applies a general statistical claim about a population to draw a conclusion about a specific individual case.

Argument from Analogy

A non-deductive inference that compares two things that are similar in certain respects and concludes that they are likely similar in another respect.

Inference to the Best Explanation

A non-deductive inference (also called abduction) that starts with observational evidence and selects the hypothesis that best accounts for that evidence.

Problem of Induction

The philosophical challenge formulated by David Hume concerning what justification exists for assuming that patterns observed in the past will continue to hold in the unobserved future.

Hypothetico-Deductive (HD) Method

A standard scientific procedure consisting of gathering observations, formulating a hypothesis, deducing observational predictions from that hypothesis, and testing whether those predictions are true.

Ravens Problem

Carl Hempel's paradox showing that because "All ravens are black" is logically equivalent to "All nonblack things are not ravens," observing an object that is nonblack and not a raven (e.g., a white shoe) could technically confirm that all ravens are black.

Curve-Fitting Problem

The problem in data analysis where an infinite number of distinct mathematical functions can perfectly fit a finite set of observed data points while making wildly conflicting predictions for future data points.

Problem of Demarcation

Karl Popper's term for the philosophical problem of distinguishing scientific theories from non-scientific claims.

Falsificationism

Karl Popper's doctrine that a hypothesis is scientific if and only if it takes risks and has the potential to be refuted by some possible observation.

Fallibilism

The philosophical position that we can never be completely certain about factual matters.

Conjecture and Refutation

Popper's two-stage model of science where a scientist first offers a bold, speculative explanatory hypothesis and subsequently subjects it to rigorous, critical testing aimed at disproving it.

Bold Theory

A theory that takes significant risks by making novel predictions that prohibit specific observable events from occurring.

Corroboration

Karl Popper's term for a backward-looking assessment of a theory that has survived many attempts to falsify it, recording past performance without implying that it is confirmed or likely to hold in the future.

Method of Strong Inference

A scientific method that couples Popperian testing with the assumption that one can enumerate all possible candidate theories in a domain and eliminate them one by one to find the truth.

Paradigm (Broad Sense)

Thomas Kuhn's broad concept referring to an entire way of doing science in a given field, consisting of a package of claims about the world, methods for gathering and analyzing data, and habits of scientific thought and action.

Paradigm (Narrow Sense / Exemplar)

Thomas Kuhn's narrow concept referring to a specific exemplary scientific achievement (such as Mendel's experiments on peas) that serves as an inspiring model directing future research.

Normal Science

Scientific work conducted within the conceptual framework provided by an accepted paradigm, wherein fundamental assumptions are agreed upon and scientists focus on solving specific puzzles.

Puzzle-Solving

The central activity of normal science in which scientists attempt to fit new phenomena into the existing paradigm framework, operating under the assumption that a valid solution exists.

Pre-Science

In Kuhn's model, the early, pre-paradigm state of an investigative field characterized by uncoordinated, disorganized, and generally ineffective work.

Anomaly

In Kuhn's framework, a scientific puzzle that persistently resists solution using the tools and concepts of the prevailing paradigm.

Crisis

A phase in Kuhn's model of scientific change where anomalies accumulate to the point that scientists lose confidence in their paradigm and begin questioning its foundations.

Paradigm Shift

A large-scale scientific revolution in which an existing paradigm in crisis is rejected and replaced by an alternative candidate paradigm, often compared to a conversion experience or a gestalt switch.

Incommensurability

The condition where two competing paradigms cannot be directly compared using a common, neutral standard of measurement due to differences in concepts, language, and standards of evidence.

Relativism

The philosophical position holding that the truth or justification of a claim, rule, or standard depends on the specific situation, culture, or point of view of an individual or community.