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SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
Auguste Comte (1798-1857) is regarded as the first philosopher of science and
the first one to distinguish natural philosophy from science. He was part of
positivism philosophy: the idea that science is the only way to learn about the
truth. According to positivism, factual knowledge can only be gained through
observation (the senses) and researchers are limited to data collection and
interpretation in an objective manner. This means that genuine knowledge is
either true by definition or positive (based upon research and observation,
empirical research). Other ways of knowing, such as intuition, are rejected or
considered meaningless. Comte is also one of the founders of sociology. His
school of sociological positivism says that society, like the physical world,
operates according to scientific laws.
According to Comte, philosophy is a dynamic space where ideas are forged,
tested and purified, leading to the emergence and evolution of scientific thought.
He thought that philosophy has historically played a central and transformative
role in the development of scientific disciplines. In the earliest stages of inquiry
(asking for information/investigating) philosophy encompasses all domains. As
these inquiries mature, they split off from philosophy and form distinct
disciplines. The remaining role of philosophy is to form a unifying framework for
understanding and organizing the sciences. In this case, tasks of philosophy
include: synthesizing scientific knowledge, offering a coherent system to
interpret scientific progress and addressing abstract, overarching questions
about unity of science. So, functions of philosophy for scientists include:
clarification of scientific concepts, critical assessment of scientific assumptions
and methods, formulation of new concepts and theories, fostering dialogue
among sciences and between science and society. This also highlights the
importance to return to philosophical debate in times of crisis in science. In
conclusion, philosophy has two roles in science. From the inside it should provide
conceptual clarification, from the outside it should provide methodological
scrutiny.
In philosophy, a priori and a posteriori are used to distinguish types of
knowledge, justification or argument by their reliance or experience. A priori
knowledge is independent from any experience and includes mathematics and
deduction from pure reason. A p0steriori knowledge depends on empirical
evidence (obtained through sense experience or experiments) and includes most
fields of science and personal knowledge. According to positivism, knowledge is
only true if it is derived a posteriori.
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WAYS OF KNOWING
There are three groups of sciences: natural sciences (physics, chemistry, etc.),
human sciences (history, literary studies, philosophy, etc.) and social sciences
(psychology, economics, anthropology, etc.). These sciences are very different,
but nowadays there is a big need for knowledge integration meaning that the
sciences need to interact. This can be difficult because the sciences take very
different approaches. There are two different general approaches of doing
science: nomothetic and idiographic. The nomothetic approach consists of
identifying regularities in the world, formulating generalizations and laws to
describe these regularities and deriving explanations of observed outcomes from
these generalizations and laws. The idiographic approach consists of
understanding the meaning of contingent, unique and often subjective
, outcomes, this appeals to one’s own experiences of similar phenomena. The
nomothetic approach is typical for the natural sciences, while the idiographic
approach is typical for the human sciences. The social sciences have aspects of
both and are very diverse.
Natural sciences are very old, there was a scientific revolution between 1550 and
1700. These sciences are interested in universals and regularities, so they zoom
out from individual events to consider classes of events. Overall, there is a
strong focus on abstraction, idealization and mathematization. The physical
universe is uniform and simple. This allows replicable knowledge in concise,
powerful formats such as scientific theories and mathematical models. At the top
of these sciences are the laws of nature, which are stated regularities in the
relations or order of phenomena in the world that hold either universally or in a
stated proportion of instances. Here, laws are seen as the paradigms of
knowledge and regarded as the highest form of scientific knowledge.
The human studies focus on historical events, acts that are motivated by
intention, texts, artworks and cultures. Humanities study human actors, which
are always creative. As creation follows no rules, everything is inexplicable and
unpredictable. Every event and context are unique and thus generalization and
idealization are not favored in this science. The highest knowledge is of
particulars (understanding individual, specific instances or experiences). Human
actions are guided by intentions, value, beliefs and cultural norms. To
understand the meaning of actions, researchers need to engage with the context
and intentions behind them, their own experiences provide a basis for
understanding others’ actions. In these sciences, many phenomena are not
identifiable purely in empirical data. The main output from humanities is
interpretations.
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KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH AND FACTS
There are three forms of knowledge: acquaintance knowledge (knowing about,
subjective, gained through personal experience), skills knowledge (knowing how
to, acquisition of skills) and propositional knowledge (knowing that something is
the case, theories, ideas, statements). Propositional knowledge is regarded as
the highest form of knowledge, because it represents facts.
The JTB (justification, truth and belief) account holds that knowledge is
equivalent to justified true belief. This idea was first proposed by Plato around
370 BC. If all three conditions are met of a given claim, then there is knowledge
of that claim. The JTB account analyses the statement: “A knows that P”. There
are three conditions for “A knows that P”: P is true, A believes that P and A is
justified in believing that P. The first condition revolves around P being true, not
on whether we are aware that it is true. This raises the question of how one can
be sure that P is true. In science this obstacle can be lessened by empirical data,
evidence, etc. The JTB account focusses on how knowledge relates to the truth, it
does not solve the problem of what is true. Condition two established that
knowledge is a person’s mental state. Condition three means that there have to
be good grounds for holding a belief. The purpose of this is to rule out lucky
guesses as knowledge.
The truth is a property of propositions (statements and claims) and systems of
propositions, such as scientific theories. Other elements of knowledge have
success predicates (adequacy, validity) and are not considered true or false. To
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
Auguste Comte (1798-1857) is regarded as the first philosopher of science and
the first one to distinguish natural philosophy from science. He was part of
positivism philosophy: the idea that science is the only way to learn about the
truth. According to positivism, factual knowledge can only be gained through
observation (the senses) and researchers are limited to data collection and
interpretation in an objective manner. This means that genuine knowledge is
either true by definition or positive (based upon research and observation,
empirical research). Other ways of knowing, such as intuition, are rejected or
considered meaningless. Comte is also one of the founders of sociology. His
school of sociological positivism says that society, like the physical world,
operates according to scientific laws.
According to Comte, philosophy is a dynamic space where ideas are forged,
tested and purified, leading to the emergence and evolution of scientific thought.
He thought that philosophy has historically played a central and transformative
role in the development of scientific disciplines. In the earliest stages of inquiry
(asking for information/investigating) philosophy encompasses all domains. As
these inquiries mature, they split off from philosophy and form distinct
disciplines. The remaining role of philosophy is to form a unifying framework for
understanding and organizing the sciences. In this case, tasks of philosophy
include: synthesizing scientific knowledge, offering a coherent system to
interpret scientific progress and addressing abstract, overarching questions
about unity of science. So, functions of philosophy for scientists include:
clarification of scientific concepts, critical assessment of scientific assumptions
and methods, formulation of new concepts and theories, fostering dialogue
among sciences and between science and society. This also highlights the
importance to return to philosophical debate in times of crisis in science. In
conclusion, philosophy has two roles in science. From the inside it should provide
conceptual clarification, from the outside it should provide methodological
scrutiny.
In philosophy, a priori and a posteriori are used to distinguish types of
knowledge, justification or argument by their reliance or experience. A priori
knowledge is independent from any experience and includes mathematics and
deduction from pure reason. A p0steriori knowledge depends on empirical
evidence (obtained through sense experience or experiments) and includes most
fields of science and personal knowledge. According to positivism, knowledge is
only true if it is derived a posteriori.
-
WAYS OF KNOWING
There are three groups of sciences: natural sciences (physics, chemistry, etc.),
human sciences (history, literary studies, philosophy, etc.) and social sciences
(psychology, economics, anthropology, etc.). These sciences are very different,
but nowadays there is a big need for knowledge integration meaning that the
sciences need to interact. This can be difficult because the sciences take very
different approaches. There are two different general approaches of doing
science: nomothetic and idiographic. The nomothetic approach consists of
identifying regularities in the world, formulating generalizations and laws to
describe these regularities and deriving explanations of observed outcomes from
these generalizations and laws. The idiographic approach consists of
understanding the meaning of contingent, unique and often subjective
, outcomes, this appeals to one’s own experiences of similar phenomena. The
nomothetic approach is typical for the natural sciences, while the idiographic
approach is typical for the human sciences. The social sciences have aspects of
both and are very diverse.
Natural sciences are very old, there was a scientific revolution between 1550 and
1700. These sciences are interested in universals and regularities, so they zoom
out from individual events to consider classes of events. Overall, there is a
strong focus on abstraction, idealization and mathematization. The physical
universe is uniform and simple. This allows replicable knowledge in concise,
powerful formats such as scientific theories and mathematical models. At the top
of these sciences are the laws of nature, which are stated regularities in the
relations or order of phenomena in the world that hold either universally or in a
stated proportion of instances. Here, laws are seen as the paradigms of
knowledge and regarded as the highest form of scientific knowledge.
The human studies focus on historical events, acts that are motivated by
intention, texts, artworks and cultures. Humanities study human actors, which
are always creative. As creation follows no rules, everything is inexplicable and
unpredictable. Every event and context are unique and thus generalization and
idealization are not favored in this science. The highest knowledge is of
particulars (understanding individual, specific instances or experiences). Human
actions are guided by intentions, value, beliefs and cultural norms. To
understand the meaning of actions, researchers need to engage with the context
and intentions behind them, their own experiences provide a basis for
understanding others’ actions. In these sciences, many phenomena are not
identifiable purely in empirical data. The main output from humanities is
interpretations.
-
KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH AND FACTS
There are three forms of knowledge: acquaintance knowledge (knowing about,
subjective, gained through personal experience), skills knowledge (knowing how
to, acquisition of skills) and propositional knowledge (knowing that something is
the case, theories, ideas, statements). Propositional knowledge is regarded as
the highest form of knowledge, because it represents facts.
The JTB (justification, truth and belief) account holds that knowledge is
equivalent to justified true belief. This idea was first proposed by Plato around
370 BC. If all three conditions are met of a given claim, then there is knowledge
of that claim. The JTB account analyses the statement: “A knows that P”. There
are three conditions for “A knows that P”: P is true, A believes that P and A is
justified in believing that P. The first condition revolves around P being true, not
on whether we are aware that it is true. This raises the question of how one can
be sure that P is true. In science this obstacle can be lessened by empirical data,
evidence, etc. The JTB account focusses on how knowledge relates to the truth, it
does not solve the problem of what is true. Condition two established that
knowledge is a person’s mental state. Condition three means that there have to
be good grounds for holding a belief. The purpose of this is to rule out lucky
guesses as knowledge.
The truth is a property of propositions (statements and claims) and systems of
propositions, such as scientific theories. Other elements of knowledge have
success predicates (adequacy, validity) and are not considered true or false. To
