Philosophy of Science (Lectures 1-10 & Textbook notes)

Philosophy Lectures


Week 1 – Part 1


Alternative facts vs. falsehood


Importance of facts: making choices, taking decisions, making policies;


Looking for facts in:
- science (natural and social sciences);
- crowning achievement of the human mind;


Types of facts: natural, technological


Two philosophical positions about science: scientism vs. scepticism;


Scepticism:
- science does not give certainty, it is equal to other forms of knowledge, science as
faith;
- critical thinking about science; its methods and its boundaries, pluralistic conception
of rationality and knowledge;
- more than one truth, truth is experience, uncertainty, knowledge= oppressive power;
science as an ideology;
- our mind= crooked mirror (we know nothing, and we never will);
- post modernism: secular but different  focus on individual and emotional
expression;
- knowledge and truth are social constructions that need “deconstruction”;
- Relativism/Nihilism;
- Slogan: anything goes;
- Science mirrors nature;

,Scientism:
- science is vastly superior to all other attempts at securing knowledge, its laws provide
certainty;
- modernists;
- age of certainty;
- use of reason;
- our mind = perfect mirror of reality;
- modernism = modern thinking: rational-secular (no religion), think for yourself, use
reason only; modernity
- knowledge and truth about nature and humans are only found by science;
- slogan: the scientific method is the only method to obtain facts and the truth; science
is about everything;




- a relativistic (everything is relative, no absolute truth), radical interpretation of
philosophical scepticism has become like a raging fire in society;
- background of the debate:
o alternative facts;
o fact free politics;
o fake news;
o post-truth era (causing populism);
o political correctness, freedom of speech, identity politics and conformism;


 in CS: misinformation, disinformation;


- science encountered with skepticism: climate change, vaccination;
- The Enlightment:
o focus on reason and individualism instead of tradition;
o David Hume, Immanuel Kant;
- Scientific revolution:
o New methods of doing research;
o New philosophy of knowledge and the world;
o Francis Bacon, Rene Decartes;

, - The political enlightment -age of reason;
- Industrial revolution;
- Great Acceleration:
o Rise of globalization, communication, media and specialization of knowledge;
- Anthropocene: human – new, recent;
o Human (instead of nature) activity is now the dominant influence on climate
and the environment;


Exploration styles:
 Naïve inquiry
o Non-formalized, non-systematic and non-controlled form of collecting and
summarizing information into naïve theories;
o Random;
o Common sense;
o Pre-modern thinking: religious thinking, belief in a given truth;
o Non-sophisticated ways of knowing reality (fixed beliefs);
o Methods of knowing:
 Tenacity: what is commonly known is true;
 Authority: high regarded person speaks the truth;
 Reasonable man: reason and logical consistency is key;
o Associations: biases, convictions, skepticism, myth;
o Slogan: “I have this theory: Theory= Hypothesis;
 Scientific inquiry
o Highly formalized, systematic and controlled inquiry;
o Science shifts the focus of truth from single individuals to groups, by
establishing a set of mutually agreed, upon rules for establishing truth;
o Modern thinking;
o Analytical-empirical approach;
o Empirical circle;
o Key is theory: a theory is a set of interrelated constructs, definitions, and
propositions that present a systematic view of phenomena by specifying
relations among variables…

, Week 1 – Part 2


Philosophy of Knowledge – Out of the cave – Antiquity;


Ontology:
- The study of being;
- What is the world made of?
- Why is there something rather than nothing?


Metaphysics:
- Study of what is beyond, or rising above, nature;
- The study of the first causes of things, that what we cannot observe;


Two visions in Antiquity on the distinction between appearance and reality;
 Heraclites:
o Change is real, being is not real: reality is constantly changing (panta rei -
everything flows), nothing is, everything becomes;
o Some things only stay the same by changing;
 Parmenides:
o Being is real, change is not; everything is, nothing becomes;
o Eternal Forms;


Approach 1 – Thought experiment;


Plato
- Nativism: our knowledge is stored inside us, we have innate knowledge; if we think
hard enough, we can remember information we lack; anamnesis: learning-by-
recollecting; our knowledge was lost when we were born;


Rationalism
 Maintains that true knowledge about reality derives from the proper use of our
reasoning capacities;