1.1 Clashing views on science
Difference between myths and facts
The problem with facts today - conspiracy theorists (=critical thinkers) burn 5G
towers, claiming link to covid-19
What is true/not true?
++ with the rise of social media there is increasing discussion on what is true and
what is not.
Why is that a problem?
• It brings uncertainty
• Facts are important to make choices, take decisions, make policy
• Societal level
We look for facts in science: natural and social sciences
The "crowning achievement of the human mind" - book p.15
A lot of natural scientific facts have been established in history.
Social scientific facts (research)
Technological facts (applications)
Media content and science is not always the same.
Two main philosophical positions about science
1. Scientism (modernism)- science is vastly superior in making knowledge
2. Scepticism (post-modernist) - science does not give certainty, science is just
an ideology, a faith (like religion)
• Ongoing debate, keeps coming back in the history of philosophy of science
• It's a spectrum (two extreme points)
• We'll think and talk about science between scientism and scepticism
Scientism
Our mind is a perfect mirror of reality
What we see is the reality
Also associated with modernism - means thinking in a rational way, 1400-1500
Knowledge and truth in science only
Scientific method and thinking ++
• Objective paradigms
• Classical reductionism
Scepticism
Our mind is a crooked mirror
We see things in a way different than what actually is
We should take a more pluralist view of reality
Post modernism - knowledge and facts are used to get people to do something, used
in a powerful way.
Knowledge and truth as social constructions that need 'deconstruction'
Science is an ideology
There is more than one truth
It can lead to relativism (anything is relative, there is no truth)
,Nihilism - nothing matters. If nothing is true, lead to cynicism
Associated ++ with one post-modern philosopher Paul Feyerabend - book against
the method. Wanted more freedom within science.
• Anything goes (slogan for the post modernists).
• Interpretative paradigms
• Debate like a family feud among philosophers
• Philosophical scepticism is critical thinking about science within boundaries of
philosophy and science
A radical interpretation of scepticism has become a raging fire in society: relativism
and cynicism
Misinformation and disinformation connected about these two views.
Relativism on a personal level
A lot in popular culture
Example of movie I, Tonya
"there is no such things as truth, everyone has their own truth"
I have my opinion, you have yours
Relativism and cynicism on societal level
Example of 'Don't look up'
Scientists communicating with the media, the entertainment field and politicians,
don't go well!!
1.2 Exploring the world scientifically
Exploring the world around us - very much a human trait
Humans are exploring beings - curious beings
Observations provide us with evidence for explanations
Observations can actually give us wrong explanations
Two basic exploration styles
• Naive inquiry - non formalized, non systematic and non controlled form of
collecting data and summarizing it into naive theories
• Scientific inquiry - systematic, highly controlled, based on observations and
reasoning. Error prone. (look at week 4.1, Popper epistemology) Control for
errors, never 100% right. Scientific method (MCRS)
Naive inquiry
• Methods of knowing - people who reason as 'it's always been like this'. What's
commonly known is true Tenacity, authority, reasonable man (reason and
logical consistency is key).
• Associations - biased, convictions, popular scepticism, some forms of
postmodernism, myth
• 'slogan' - 'I have this theory', the use of the word theory when meaning an
hypothesis, a guess or an idea
Scientific inquiry
, "Science shifts the locus of truth from single individuals to groups, by establishing a
set of mutually agreed upon rules for establishing truth"
• The scientific method
• Modern thinking
• Analytical-empirical method
• Laboratories and experiments are THE symbols of scientific inquiry in natural
and social sciences
• Scientific inquiry leads to knowledge
What is knowledge?
Knowledge is a justified true belief
What is a belief? How do we justify beliefs?
VIDEO LECTURES NOTES
Epistemic scepticism - broadly speaking it entails that obtaining knowledge of
anything is impossible. "we can't really know anything" is however still an assumption
of truth, so people should more carefully use epistemic scepticism in this sense.
Out of the cave and into the world
Time: 427-322 BCE - Until 18th century the debate was a struggle
Rationalism (to know is to remember) - Plato
How can humans get true knowledge?
Knowledge is justified by true belief (judgment with a justification/account)
True = means that it corresponds to the facts (theory of truth)
Justified = with a good reason
What is a good justification?
Without justification a belief does not correspond to fact and thus does not count as
knowledge
Ontological question - ontology and metaphysics
Ontology = study of being, what are we, what is there, state of being
Metaphysics = about unobservable things, beyond the physical. The study of the
first causes of things, what we cannot observe. How can we trace knowledge back to
unobservable things
In antiquity, these terms were used as synonyms, but now they are separated
Two visions on distinction between appearance and reality in Antiquity
• Heraclites - change is reality, being is not. Everything flows, panta rei
• Parmenides - the opposite way, being is reality, change is not. Everything is,
nothing becomes. Fixed reality
Plato tried to answer the question of who of them was right.
Difference between myths and facts
The problem with facts today - conspiracy theorists (=critical thinkers) burn 5G
towers, claiming link to covid-19
What is true/not true?
++ with the rise of social media there is increasing discussion on what is true and
what is not.
Why is that a problem?
• It brings uncertainty
• Facts are important to make choices, take decisions, make policy
• Societal level
We look for facts in science: natural and social sciences
The "crowning achievement of the human mind" - book p.15
A lot of natural scientific facts have been established in history.
Social scientific facts (research)
Technological facts (applications)
Media content and science is not always the same.
Two main philosophical positions about science
1. Scientism (modernism)- science is vastly superior in making knowledge
2. Scepticism (post-modernist) - science does not give certainty, science is just
an ideology, a faith (like religion)
• Ongoing debate, keeps coming back in the history of philosophy of science
• It's a spectrum (two extreme points)
• We'll think and talk about science between scientism and scepticism
Scientism
Our mind is a perfect mirror of reality
What we see is the reality
Also associated with modernism - means thinking in a rational way, 1400-1500
Knowledge and truth in science only
Scientific method and thinking ++
• Objective paradigms
• Classical reductionism
Scepticism
Our mind is a crooked mirror
We see things in a way different than what actually is
We should take a more pluralist view of reality
Post modernism - knowledge and facts are used to get people to do something, used
in a powerful way.
Knowledge and truth as social constructions that need 'deconstruction'
Science is an ideology
There is more than one truth
It can lead to relativism (anything is relative, there is no truth)
,Nihilism - nothing matters. If nothing is true, lead to cynicism
Associated ++ with one post-modern philosopher Paul Feyerabend - book against
the method. Wanted more freedom within science.
• Anything goes (slogan for the post modernists).
• Interpretative paradigms
• Debate like a family feud among philosophers
• Philosophical scepticism is critical thinking about science within boundaries of
philosophy and science
A radical interpretation of scepticism has become a raging fire in society: relativism
and cynicism
Misinformation and disinformation connected about these two views.
Relativism on a personal level
A lot in popular culture
Example of movie I, Tonya
"there is no such things as truth, everyone has their own truth"
I have my opinion, you have yours
Relativism and cynicism on societal level
Example of 'Don't look up'
Scientists communicating with the media, the entertainment field and politicians,
don't go well!!
1.2 Exploring the world scientifically
Exploring the world around us - very much a human trait
Humans are exploring beings - curious beings
Observations provide us with evidence for explanations
Observations can actually give us wrong explanations
Two basic exploration styles
• Naive inquiry - non formalized, non systematic and non controlled form of
collecting data and summarizing it into naive theories
• Scientific inquiry - systematic, highly controlled, based on observations and
reasoning. Error prone. (look at week 4.1, Popper epistemology) Control for
errors, never 100% right. Scientific method (MCRS)
Naive inquiry
• Methods of knowing - people who reason as 'it's always been like this'. What's
commonly known is true Tenacity, authority, reasonable man (reason and
logical consistency is key).
• Associations - biased, convictions, popular scepticism, some forms of
postmodernism, myth
• 'slogan' - 'I have this theory', the use of the word theory when meaning an
hypothesis, a guess or an idea
Scientific inquiry
, "Science shifts the locus of truth from single individuals to groups, by establishing a
set of mutually agreed upon rules for establishing truth"
• The scientific method
• Modern thinking
• Analytical-empirical method
• Laboratories and experiments are THE symbols of scientific inquiry in natural
and social sciences
• Scientific inquiry leads to knowledge
What is knowledge?
Knowledge is a justified true belief
What is a belief? How do we justify beliefs?
VIDEO LECTURES NOTES
Epistemic scepticism - broadly speaking it entails that obtaining knowledge of
anything is impossible. "we can't really know anything" is however still an assumption
of truth, so people should more carefully use epistemic scepticism in this sense.
Out of the cave and into the world
Time: 427-322 BCE - Until 18th century the debate was a struggle
Rationalism (to know is to remember) - Plato
How can humans get true knowledge?
Knowledge is justified by true belief (judgment with a justification/account)
True = means that it corresponds to the facts (theory of truth)
Justified = with a good reason
What is a good justification?
Without justification a belief does not correspond to fact and thus does not count as
knowledge
Ontological question - ontology and metaphysics
Ontology = study of being, what are we, what is there, state of being
Metaphysics = about unobservable things, beyond the physical. The study of the
first causes of things, what we cannot observe. How can we trace knowledge back to
unobservable things
In antiquity, these terms were used as synonyms, but now they are separated
Two visions on distinction between appearance and reality in Antiquity
• Heraclites - change is reality, being is not. Everything flows, panta rei
• Parmenides - the opposite way, being is reality, change is not. Everything is,
nothing becomes. Fixed reality
Plato tried to answer the question of who of them was right.
