Philosophy of Science
compilation document
Content
Lecture 1 – 3-2 – ways of knowing.........................................................................................................2
Lecture 2 – 10-2 – knowledge, truth, and facts......................................................................................7
Lecture 3 – 17-2 – scientific laws and induction...................................................................................13
Lecture 4 – 24-2 – explanations and causes.........................................................................................21
Lecture 5 – 3-3 – falsificationism..........................................................................................................28
Lecture 6 – 10-3 – paradigms and revolutions......................................................................................35
Lecture 7 – 31-3 – methodology of analogies and models...................................................................43
Lecture 8 – 7-4 – quantitative and qualitative approaches...................................................................51
Lecture 9 – 21-4 – rationality................................................................................................................58
Lecture 10 – 28-4 – interpretation and understanding.........................................................................65
Lecture 11 – 12-5 – absolutism and relativism.....................................................................................71
1
,Lecture 1 – 3-2 – ways of knowing
- Variety of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities
- Nomothetic and idiographic approaches
Knowledge takes many forms: there are many ways of knowing about a subject matter
Some knowledge is in the form of high-level abstract principles, for example, whereas other
knowledge gives you details of individual events
These ways of knowing are distributed among academic disciplines
The knowledge that we get from sociology is different from that which we get from history,
for example
In order to recognize and use knowledge, and especially in order to be able to combine knowledge
from different disciplines, it is useful to survey some of the kinds of knowledge that exist
In this lecture, we will focus on the difference between the nomothetic and idiographic approaches
to knowledge and the variety of the scientific and academic disciplines
How do different disciplines conceptualise the world?
What does it means to have knowledge?
How do scientists reason?
Ascent to abstraction
- Philosophy of science is higher abstraction
- Equipping you to meet problems coming over the horizon
- Abstraction means difficulty
- Philosophy is like climbing the tower in the picture
Three groups of sciences
- Natural sciences
o Physics
o Chemistry
o Biology
o Astronomy
o Etc.
- Humanities
o History
o History of art
o Linguistics
o Literary studies
2
, o Philosophy
o Religious studies
o Etc.
- Social sciences
o Sociology
o Political science
o Economics
o Psychology
o Anthropology
o Etc.
Characteristics, strengths, and blind spots
Distinction between two approaches to describe the world: nomothetic and idiographic
It is important to know what kinds of knowledge different disciplines produce
Natural sciences
- Ancient intellectual endeavours
o Astronomy arose in Babylonia around 1200 BCE
o Modern natural sciences developed partly from Chinese, Indian, and Islamic sources
in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
- Scientific revolution
o Europe
o 1550-1700
- Physical universe is uniform and simple
- Natural sciences focus on universals and regularities
o Example: phenomenon of free fall
o Less interest in concrete historical particulars, such as the fall of this stone
Less interest in individual occurrences
- Standard techniques of theorizing
o Mathemization, abstraction, idealization
o Yield knowledge in concise, powerful forms
- Example: laws of nature
o Mathematical equations among physical quantities
o Isaac newton’s law of gravitation (1687): F = Gm1m2/r2
Universally true capsule of knowledge
Concise
Highest grade of scientific knowledge
- Laws as paradigms of knowledge
o Taken to represent the highest grade of scientific knowledge
o Even by many outside the natural sciences
Humanities
- In ancient and medieval education, the liberal arts were “ways of doing”
o Grammar
o Rhetoric
o Logic
- Gradually, they developed into subjects of study
3
, o Renaissance humanism, 15th century
- Present-day humanities disciplines
o History
o History of art
o Studies of language and literature
o Philosophy
o Religious studies
o Etc.
- World studied by the humanities
o Focused on historical human actors
- Historical actors are creative
o They originate acts, texts, artworks, etc.
o Creation follows no rules
Unpredictable and inexplicable
There is no scientific explanations for people creating cubism
- Important methodological consequences
- Historical particularity
o Every event and context is unique
o We identify periods (for example the Renaissance), but them zoom in past these
categories
o We identify typologies (for example revolutions)
Unique event: the Russian revolution
- Mistrust of generalization and idealization
o Highest form of knowledge is intimate knowledge of particulars
o Little or no use for scientific laws (generally)
- Main output: interpretations
o Of acts, texts, artworks, etc.
o Often embedded in theoretical frameworks
- Empathy, hermeneutics
o We attempt to reconstruct the historical actor’s world of experiences and meanings
- Objectivity of interpretation
o We test interpretations against the text or other material
Some complications
- Both groups of disciplines are more diverse than i have described
- Variety in natural sciences
o Example: mechanisms thinking in biology
- Variety in humanities
o Linguistics, archaeology use some methods inspired by the natural sciences
o Marxist historiography: belief in universal laws of historical development
Question
- How to conceptualize the differences between natural sciences and humanities?
- How to analyse the diversity of the social sciences?
- Answer: using the concepts of nomothetic and idiographic approaches
o Proposed by Wilhelm Windelband (1848-1915), German neo-Kantian philosopher, in
1894
4
compilation document
Content
Lecture 1 – 3-2 – ways of knowing.........................................................................................................2
Lecture 2 – 10-2 – knowledge, truth, and facts......................................................................................7
Lecture 3 – 17-2 – scientific laws and induction...................................................................................13
Lecture 4 – 24-2 – explanations and causes.........................................................................................21
Lecture 5 – 3-3 – falsificationism..........................................................................................................28
Lecture 6 – 10-3 – paradigms and revolutions......................................................................................35
Lecture 7 – 31-3 – methodology of analogies and models...................................................................43
Lecture 8 – 7-4 – quantitative and qualitative approaches...................................................................51
Lecture 9 – 21-4 – rationality................................................................................................................58
Lecture 10 – 28-4 – interpretation and understanding.........................................................................65
Lecture 11 – 12-5 – absolutism and relativism.....................................................................................71
1
,Lecture 1 – 3-2 – ways of knowing
- Variety of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities
- Nomothetic and idiographic approaches
Knowledge takes many forms: there are many ways of knowing about a subject matter
Some knowledge is in the form of high-level abstract principles, for example, whereas other
knowledge gives you details of individual events
These ways of knowing are distributed among academic disciplines
The knowledge that we get from sociology is different from that which we get from history,
for example
In order to recognize and use knowledge, and especially in order to be able to combine knowledge
from different disciplines, it is useful to survey some of the kinds of knowledge that exist
In this lecture, we will focus on the difference between the nomothetic and idiographic approaches
to knowledge and the variety of the scientific and academic disciplines
How do different disciplines conceptualise the world?
What does it means to have knowledge?
How do scientists reason?
Ascent to abstraction
- Philosophy of science is higher abstraction
- Equipping you to meet problems coming over the horizon
- Abstraction means difficulty
- Philosophy is like climbing the tower in the picture
Three groups of sciences
- Natural sciences
o Physics
o Chemistry
o Biology
o Astronomy
o Etc.
- Humanities
o History
o History of art
o Linguistics
o Literary studies
2
, o Philosophy
o Religious studies
o Etc.
- Social sciences
o Sociology
o Political science
o Economics
o Psychology
o Anthropology
o Etc.
Characteristics, strengths, and blind spots
Distinction between two approaches to describe the world: nomothetic and idiographic
It is important to know what kinds of knowledge different disciplines produce
Natural sciences
- Ancient intellectual endeavours
o Astronomy arose in Babylonia around 1200 BCE
o Modern natural sciences developed partly from Chinese, Indian, and Islamic sources
in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
- Scientific revolution
o Europe
o 1550-1700
- Physical universe is uniform and simple
- Natural sciences focus on universals and regularities
o Example: phenomenon of free fall
o Less interest in concrete historical particulars, such as the fall of this stone
Less interest in individual occurrences
- Standard techniques of theorizing
o Mathemization, abstraction, idealization
o Yield knowledge in concise, powerful forms
- Example: laws of nature
o Mathematical equations among physical quantities
o Isaac newton’s law of gravitation (1687): F = Gm1m2/r2
Universally true capsule of knowledge
Concise
Highest grade of scientific knowledge
- Laws as paradigms of knowledge
o Taken to represent the highest grade of scientific knowledge
o Even by many outside the natural sciences
Humanities
- In ancient and medieval education, the liberal arts were “ways of doing”
o Grammar
o Rhetoric
o Logic
- Gradually, they developed into subjects of study
3
, o Renaissance humanism, 15th century
- Present-day humanities disciplines
o History
o History of art
o Studies of language and literature
o Philosophy
o Religious studies
o Etc.
- World studied by the humanities
o Focused on historical human actors
- Historical actors are creative
o They originate acts, texts, artworks, etc.
o Creation follows no rules
Unpredictable and inexplicable
There is no scientific explanations for people creating cubism
- Important methodological consequences
- Historical particularity
o Every event and context is unique
o We identify periods (for example the Renaissance), but them zoom in past these
categories
o We identify typologies (for example revolutions)
Unique event: the Russian revolution
- Mistrust of generalization and idealization
o Highest form of knowledge is intimate knowledge of particulars
o Little or no use for scientific laws (generally)
- Main output: interpretations
o Of acts, texts, artworks, etc.
o Often embedded in theoretical frameworks
- Empathy, hermeneutics
o We attempt to reconstruct the historical actor’s world of experiences and meanings
- Objectivity of interpretation
o We test interpretations against the text or other material
Some complications
- Both groups of disciplines are more diverse than i have described
- Variety in natural sciences
o Example: mechanisms thinking in biology
- Variety in humanities
o Linguistics, archaeology use some methods inspired by the natural sciences
o Marxist historiography: belief in universal laws of historical development
Question
- How to conceptualize the differences between natural sciences and humanities?
- How to analyse the diversity of the social sciences?
- Answer: using the concepts of nomothetic and idiographic approaches
o Proposed by Wilhelm Windelband (1848-1915), German neo-Kantian philosopher, in
1894
4
