Philosophy of Science

Philosophy

Means "love of wisdom."

philo

meaning love

sophos

meaning wisdom

Philosophers

They think about the meaning of things and interpretation of that meaning.

Psychology

study of the mind and behavior

axiology, epistemology, metaphysically

three branches of philosophy

Ethical/Axiology

the study of values in human behavior or the study of moral problems

Ethics

study of human conduct and examines moral values

Aesthetics

values beauty, nature, and aesthetic experience (often associated with music, art, literature, dance theater and other fine arts)

Epistemological

the study of knowledge

Epistemological

how do we know what is true? It is sense experience vs. reason.

Logic

a key dimension to epistemology

Deductive

general to specific reasoning

Inductive

specific facts to generalization reasoning

Metaphysical

study of what is really real

Metaphysical

Deals with the so-called first principles of the natural order and "the ultimate generalizations available to the human intellect

Metaphysical

laws, causation, explanation

Ontology

What is the nature of existence

Cosmology

Origin and organization of the universe

Theorem

statements that have been proven true

Axioms

fundamental principles or assumptions in mathematical reasoning

Physics

Measurement; fundamental principles governing the behavior of matter and energy in the universe

Biology

Scientific study of living organisms and their interactions with the environment

Inductivism

Proposes and rests on a common understanding of the laws of the universe; there are laws of nature and uniformities that govern these laws. Facts are observable, and theories should be derived from these facts by observation.

Hypothetico-deductivism

Rejects the context of discovery. Asserts that “facts” are not always observable. (If…Then)

Falsificationism

Rejects the context of discovery. Confirmation of hypothesis is not enough. No specific number of confirmations will make any hypothesis true. 

Conjecture

Formation of a hypothesis or a speculative idea based on limited evidence or intuition

Refutation

Refutation

Critical examination and testing of a hypothesis through experimentation, observation, or evidence

Conjecture and Refutation

Science must continue to progress through an open quest to put existing theories to the test, allowing preconceived notions of “facts,” whatever they may be, up to scientific criticism and refutation.

Normal Science

It is in this period of revolutionary science that theories are checked, previously held formulations are re-analyzed and possible refutations are generated, for a new paradigm, or paradigm shift to occur.

Quantitative Data

numeric variables (how many, how much, how often)

Qualitative Data

categorical variables (what type, from where, qualities)

Reliability

Refers to how consistently a method measures something. If the same result can be consistently achieved by using the same methods under the same circumstances, the measurement is considered reliable.

Validity

Refers to how accurately a method measures what it is intended to measure. If research has high validity, that means it produces results that correspond to real properties, characteristics, and variations in the physical or social world.

High reliability

One indicator that a measurement is valid. If a method is not reliable, it probably isn’t valid.

Face Validity

the extent to which a measurement method appears “on its face” to measure the construct of interest. E.g. IQ test

Construct Validity

used to ensure that the measure is actual measure what it is intended to measure (i.e. the construct), and not other variables; E.g. self-esteem questionnaire

Content Validity

the extent to which the measurement covers all aspects of the concepts being measure; E.g. Comprehension test

Criterion Validity

The extent to which the result of a measure corresponds to other valid measures of the same concept; E.g. survey

Discriminant Validity

the extent to which scores on a measure are not correlated with measures of variables that are conceptually distinct; E.g. Self-esteem

currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose

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