Elise Lamont grijs: lesnotities
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
INHOUDSOPGAVE
lecture 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Do atoms exist? ............................................................................................................................ 7
“Do atoms exist?” as an example of the core metaphysical and epistemological questions of the
philosophy of science ................................................................................................................. 7
Overview of the philosophy of science of the past 100 years ........................................................... 8
lecture 2 ......................................................................................................................................11
Science is great ...........................................................................................................................11
Knowledge as justified true belief (JTB account of knowledge).........................................................11
Scientific justifications are special ...............................................................................................12
Too rosy a picture? .....................................................................................................................13
The Demarcation Problem: What distinguishes science from pseudo-science? !!!!!........................13
Why does demarcation matter?...................................................................................................13
Towards a tentative answer.........................................................................................................14
Deductive and Inductive reasoning ..............................................................................................14
The inductive leap ............................................................................................................................ 15
Inductive reasoning (classical conception) ...................................................................................... 15
Naïve verificationism ........................................................................................................................ 16
Does the inductive method produce knowledge? ............................................................................. 17
Where are we in the argument of this lecture? ...............................................................................18
The demarcation problem around 1900 ........................................................................................18
Popper on Marxism and psychoanalysis .......................................................................................18
Good scientific theories (according to Popper) ..............................................................................19
falsifactionism Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994), Die Logik der Forschung (1934), The Logic of Scientific
Discovery (1959) ..........................................................................................................................19
Impact ........................................................................................................................................20
Lecture 3 .....................................................................................................................................20
Today .......................................................................................................................................20
1
,Elise Lamont grijs: lesnotities
The Ptolemaic System .................................................................................................................21
Intellectual Background .............................................................................................................21
Claudius Ptolemy ......................................................................................................................21
Circles upon circles ......................................................................................................................... 22
Why Ptolemy’s system persisted .................................................................................................23
Some insights ...........................................................................................................................23
Towards heliocentrism ................................................................................................................24
Copernicus (1473–1543) ............................................................................................................24
A search for simplicity and harmony................................................................................................. 24
Brightness variations of the planets (example for simplification) ......................................................25
Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) ...........................................................................................................25
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) ......................................................................................................26
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) .........................................................................................................26
The Phases of Venus ........................................................................................................................ 26
Crucial Experiments...................................................................................................................27
Were the phases of Venus a crucial experiment? ............................................................................. 27
Was Mars’s motion a crucial experiment? ........................................................................................ 28
Relevant take-aways ..................................................................................................................28
Case studies as a method ............................................................................................................29
Let’s deepen the worry about case studiES ...................................................................................... 29
Lecture 4 .....................................................................................................................................30
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (1922 – 1996) ..............................................................................................30
Kuhn Against “theory talk” ...........................................................................................................31
What is a paradigm?...................................................................................................................31
Paradigms as the Constellation of Group Commitments ...............................................................32
Disciplinary matrix .....................................................................................................................32
Paradigms as Shared Examples....................................................................................................33
Quick summary of the lecture so far .............................................................................................34
The four phases of scientific development ....................................................................................34
Pre-paradigmatic phase .............................................................................................................35
Example: The Copernican Revolution Pre-paradigmatic phase: Before Ptolemy ............................... 35
Normal Science Science under a dominant paradigm ....................................................................36
Example: The Copernican Revolution Normal Science: Ptolemy’s system in use ............................. 36
Crisis When the paradigm begins to break down............................................................................37
Example: The Copernican Revolution Crisis: anomalies accumulate ............................................... 37
2
,Elise Lamont grijs: lesnotities
Revolution Paradigm shift - a new framework replaces the old ........................................................38
Example: The Copernican Revolution Revolution: ............................................................................ 38
Incommensurability ......................................................................................................................... 39
The Popper-Kuhn debate..............................................................................................................40
Context ....................................................................................................................................40
Is science cumulative and objective (popper), or revolutionary and socially embedded (kuhn)? ..........40
Popper’s replies ........................................................................................................................41
What to make of the debate?.......................................................................................................42
Post-Kuhn ...................................................................................................................................42
The practice-turn in the philosophy of science ..............................................................................42
Lecture 5 ....................................................................................................................................43
Where are we? Where will we go? .................................................................................................43
Imre Lakatos (1922 – 1974)............................................................................................................43
Content & Structure of Lakatos’ lecture ........................................................................................46
Where to situate Lakatos on the normative/descriptive divide in the philosophy of science? ...............46
Scientific research programmes (SRP) .........................................................................................47
Heuristics ........................................................................................................................................ 48
A SRP example case: Halley’s comet................................................................................................ 49
Progressive and Degenerating SRPs ................................................................................................. 49
Summing Up .............................................................................................................................51
Paul Feyerabend 1924–1994 .........................................................................................................51
Theoretical Anarchism ...............................................................................................................52
Anything goes ................................................................................................................................... 53
Proliferation of theory .................................................................................................................55
Galileo and the church ...............................................................................................................57
Context of discovery & Context of Justification ..............................................................................58
Lecture 6 .....................................................................................................................................60
Of Cranks and Crackpots: What Eccentrics Can Teach Us about the Epistemology of Mathematics 61
Three-tiered model of argumentation ...........................................................................................61
Standard Academic Publishing ....................................................................................................61
Manifest and operative concepts .................................................................................................62
lecture 7 ......................................................................................................................................63
Today: feminist philosophy of science ..........................................................................................63
Four waves of feminism ..............................................................................................................63
3
, Elise Lamont grijs: lesnotities
First Wave (19th–early 20th century) ................................................................................................ 63
Second Wave (1960s–1980s)............................................................................................................ 63
Third Wave (1990s–early 2000s) ....................................................................................................... 64
Fourth Wave (2010s–present) ........................................................................................................... 65
Themes in feminist philosophy of science ....................................................................................65
Feminist Philosophy of Science (overview)....................................................................................65
The ideal of value-free science ....................................................................................................66
is science value-free? myth of value-freeness of science ................................................................. 66
Situated knowledge ...................................................................................................................67
Standpoint Theory......................................................................................................................68
José Medina ..................................................................................................................................... 68
Problems with (early) feminist PhilSci...........................................................................................69
Helen Longino on objectivity in science ........................................................................................70
What the paper does ..................................................................................................................70
Strategy 1: Critiques of Science Itself ...........................................................................................70
Strategy 2: Critiques of Philosophy of Science and Rationality .........................................................71
Strategy 3: Critiques of the Institutional and Social Structures of Science .........................................72
Longino’s concern .....................................................................................................................73
Rationality Is Socially Infused ......................................................................................................74
Longino’s Central Claim .............................................................................................................75
Longino’s Four Criteria for Objectivity (quoted from p. 267) .............................................................. 75
Longino summary ......................................................................................................................76
Criticising Longino’s account of objectivity ...................................................................................77
Emma’s point ................................................................................................................................... 77
Lecture 8 .....................................................................................................................................78
Exam style questions .................................................................................................................78
Metaphysics ................................................................................................................................81
Do atoms exist? .........................................................................................................................81
Does this answer our question? ....................................................................................................... 81
Realism & anti-realism ...............................................................................................................81
Is this not just idle talk? .................................................................................................................... 82
(Anti-)Realism about what? .............................................................................................................. 84
Theory (Anti-)Realism ....................................................................................................................... 85
Lecture 9 .....................................................................................................................................88
Key questions ............................................................................................................................88
Mind-Body Dualism: René Descartes (1596–1650) .........................................................................88
4
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
INHOUDSOPGAVE
lecture 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Do atoms exist? ............................................................................................................................ 7
“Do atoms exist?” as an example of the core metaphysical and epistemological questions of the
philosophy of science ................................................................................................................. 7
Overview of the philosophy of science of the past 100 years ........................................................... 8
lecture 2 ......................................................................................................................................11
Science is great ...........................................................................................................................11
Knowledge as justified true belief (JTB account of knowledge).........................................................11
Scientific justifications are special ...............................................................................................12
Too rosy a picture? .....................................................................................................................13
The Demarcation Problem: What distinguishes science from pseudo-science? !!!!!........................13
Why does demarcation matter?...................................................................................................13
Towards a tentative answer.........................................................................................................14
Deductive and Inductive reasoning ..............................................................................................14
The inductive leap ............................................................................................................................ 15
Inductive reasoning (classical conception) ...................................................................................... 15
Naïve verificationism ........................................................................................................................ 16
Does the inductive method produce knowledge? ............................................................................. 17
Where are we in the argument of this lecture? ...............................................................................18
The demarcation problem around 1900 ........................................................................................18
Popper on Marxism and psychoanalysis .......................................................................................18
Good scientific theories (according to Popper) ..............................................................................19
falsifactionism Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994), Die Logik der Forschung (1934), The Logic of Scientific
Discovery (1959) ..........................................................................................................................19
Impact ........................................................................................................................................20
Lecture 3 .....................................................................................................................................20
Today .......................................................................................................................................20
1
,Elise Lamont grijs: lesnotities
The Ptolemaic System .................................................................................................................21
Intellectual Background .............................................................................................................21
Claudius Ptolemy ......................................................................................................................21
Circles upon circles ......................................................................................................................... 22
Why Ptolemy’s system persisted .................................................................................................23
Some insights ...........................................................................................................................23
Towards heliocentrism ................................................................................................................24
Copernicus (1473–1543) ............................................................................................................24
A search for simplicity and harmony................................................................................................. 24
Brightness variations of the planets (example for simplification) ......................................................25
Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) ...........................................................................................................25
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) ......................................................................................................26
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) .........................................................................................................26
The Phases of Venus ........................................................................................................................ 26
Crucial Experiments...................................................................................................................27
Were the phases of Venus a crucial experiment? ............................................................................. 27
Was Mars’s motion a crucial experiment? ........................................................................................ 28
Relevant take-aways ..................................................................................................................28
Case studies as a method ............................................................................................................29
Let’s deepen the worry about case studiES ...................................................................................... 29
Lecture 4 .....................................................................................................................................30
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (1922 – 1996) ..............................................................................................30
Kuhn Against “theory talk” ...........................................................................................................31
What is a paradigm?...................................................................................................................31
Paradigms as the Constellation of Group Commitments ...............................................................32
Disciplinary matrix .....................................................................................................................32
Paradigms as Shared Examples....................................................................................................33
Quick summary of the lecture so far .............................................................................................34
The four phases of scientific development ....................................................................................34
Pre-paradigmatic phase .............................................................................................................35
Example: The Copernican Revolution Pre-paradigmatic phase: Before Ptolemy ............................... 35
Normal Science Science under a dominant paradigm ....................................................................36
Example: The Copernican Revolution Normal Science: Ptolemy’s system in use ............................. 36
Crisis When the paradigm begins to break down............................................................................37
Example: The Copernican Revolution Crisis: anomalies accumulate ............................................... 37
2
,Elise Lamont grijs: lesnotities
Revolution Paradigm shift - a new framework replaces the old ........................................................38
Example: The Copernican Revolution Revolution: ............................................................................ 38
Incommensurability ......................................................................................................................... 39
The Popper-Kuhn debate..............................................................................................................40
Context ....................................................................................................................................40
Is science cumulative and objective (popper), or revolutionary and socially embedded (kuhn)? ..........40
Popper’s replies ........................................................................................................................41
What to make of the debate?.......................................................................................................42
Post-Kuhn ...................................................................................................................................42
The practice-turn in the philosophy of science ..............................................................................42
Lecture 5 ....................................................................................................................................43
Where are we? Where will we go? .................................................................................................43
Imre Lakatos (1922 – 1974)............................................................................................................43
Content & Structure of Lakatos’ lecture ........................................................................................46
Where to situate Lakatos on the normative/descriptive divide in the philosophy of science? ...............46
Scientific research programmes (SRP) .........................................................................................47
Heuristics ........................................................................................................................................ 48
A SRP example case: Halley’s comet................................................................................................ 49
Progressive and Degenerating SRPs ................................................................................................. 49
Summing Up .............................................................................................................................51
Paul Feyerabend 1924–1994 .........................................................................................................51
Theoretical Anarchism ...............................................................................................................52
Anything goes ................................................................................................................................... 53
Proliferation of theory .................................................................................................................55
Galileo and the church ...............................................................................................................57
Context of discovery & Context of Justification ..............................................................................58
Lecture 6 .....................................................................................................................................60
Of Cranks and Crackpots: What Eccentrics Can Teach Us about the Epistemology of Mathematics 61
Three-tiered model of argumentation ...........................................................................................61
Standard Academic Publishing ....................................................................................................61
Manifest and operative concepts .................................................................................................62
lecture 7 ......................................................................................................................................63
Today: feminist philosophy of science ..........................................................................................63
Four waves of feminism ..............................................................................................................63
3
, Elise Lamont grijs: lesnotities
First Wave (19th–early 20th century) ................................................................................................ 63
Second Wave (1960s–1980s)............................................................................................................ 63
Third Wave (1990s–early 2000s) ....................................................................................................... 64
Fourth Wave (2010s–present) ........................................................................................................... 65
Themes in feminist philosophy of science ....................................................................................65
Feminist Philosophy of Science (overview)....................................................................................65
The ideal of value-free science ....................................................................................................66
is science value-free? myth of value-freeness of science ................................................................. 66
Situated knowledge ...................................................................................................................67
Standpoint Theory......................................................................................................................68
José Medina ..................................................................................................................................... 68
Problems with (early) feminist PhilSci...........................................................................................69
Helen Longino on objectivity in science ........................................................................................70
What the paper does ..................................................................................................................70
Strategy 1: Critiques of Science Itself ...........................................................................................70
Strategy 2: Critiques of Philosophy of Science and Rationality .........................................................71
Strategy 3: Critiques of the Institutional and Social Structures of Science .........................................72
Longino’s concern .....................................................................................................................73
Rationality Is Socially Infused ......................................................................................................74
Longino’s Central Claim .............................................................................................................75
Longino’s Four Criteria for Objectivity (quoted from p. 267) .............................................................. 75
Longino summary ......................................................................................................................76
Criticising Longino’s account of objectivity ...................................................................................77
Emma’s point ................................................................................................................................... 77
Lecture 8 .....................................................................................................................................78
Exam style questions .................................................................................................................78
Metaphysics ................................................................................................................................81
Do atoms exist? .........................................................................................................................81
Does this answer our question? ....................................................................................................... 81
Realism & anti-realism ...............................................................................................................81
Is this not just idle talk? .................................................................................................................... 82
(Anti-)Realism about what? .............................................................................................................. 84
Theory (Anti-)Realism ....................................................................................................................... 85
Lecture 9 .....................................................................................................................................88
Key questions ............................................................................................................................88
Mind-Body Dualism: René Descartes (1596–1650) .........................................................................88
4
