28/10/2019Barker College

Dr Matthew Hill(Contact: mhill@barker.nsw.edu.au)

Philosophy of Science: Epistemology & Scientific ReasoningDefinitions (taken from the Science Extension Syllabus)Epistemology A branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods and limits of human

knowledge.Empiricism The theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses.

Induction Inference of a generalised conclusion from particular instances.Deduction Deriving a conclusion by reasoning using known facts.Falsifiability The idea that a theory, hypothesis or statement must be testable and shown to be incorrect, if it

is to be considered scientific.Parsimony Adoption of the simplest assumption in the formulation of a theory or in the interpretation of

data, especially in accordance with the rule of Occam's razor.Occam’s razor

The proposition that where multiple conclusions are found to be equally possible, the simplest is the true conclusion.

1. Observations and inferences

2. Epistemology“Each Way of Knowing (e.g. reason, sense perception, emotion, language, etc.) provides a particular way of producing or accessing knowledge. Whilst an individual understanding and analysis of each of them is expected, the IB emphasizes that it is also important to see how they work in collaboration with each other and, what role they play in each Area of Knowledge.” (https://osc-ib.com/article/how-tok)

3. EmpiricismRationalism Empiricism

Limitations of Empiricism

(a) What does it mean to observe something?(b) Do we learn science through empirical or rational methods?(c) Is empiricism the best way to gain knowledge of all things?

We say that Science is based on Empiricism, not rationalism. Is there room for both?

Astronomy is advancing quickly, with resources being allocated to the cutting edge of our understanding of the universe while the more basic understanding and confirmation aspects of astronomy research are still underway. Research in both areas is conducted according to two differing philosophies of knowledge: empiricism, which holds observation and direct experiment as the most reliable source of information, and rationalism, which holds conclusions reached through pure reasoning from first principles above all others. This investigation seeks to explore how the empiricist and rationalist approaches each serve the pursuit and advancement of astronomy as a science. Using a thorough analysis of the existing literature on empiricism and rationalism in astronomy, as well as data from interviews of several practicing expert astronomers in and around the University of Colorado Boulder who take

Reason (rationalism)

Sense perception

(empiricism)Emotion Language

Memory Imagination Belief Intuition

empiricist and rationalist approaches to astronomy research, this investigation finds that astronomy as a productive, growing field of research achieves its greatest successes when empiricists and rationalists can work in close proximity. Increased communication and collaboration between researchers of the two approaches, as well as a stronger understanding of the applications and implications of empiricist and rationalist thought, can help to maximize these advantages.

Quarles, O., 2018. Empiricism and Rationalism in the Advancement of Astronomy. (University of Colorado)

4. Induction vs DeductionInduction – coming up with (probable) general rules or theories from specific sets of observations

Deduction – coming up with (logical) specific observations/conclusions from general rules or theories

Francis Bacon - Bacon dealt with his scientific method, which became famous under the name of induction. He repudiates the syllogistic method and defines his alternative procedure as one “which by slow and faithful toil gathers information from things and brings it into understanding” (Farrington 1964, 89). (From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Emphasising induction in science - Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

The inductionist canon called for making observations without prejudice as to what they might mean and accumulating observations related to a particular subject so that a universal statement or conclusion could eventually emerge from them. Indeed, in one place in his Autobiography, Darwin affirms that he proceeded “on true Baconian principles and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale” (Barlow, 1958, p. 119). (From In the Light of Evolution: Volume III: Two Centuries of Darwin)

Emphasising deduction in science - Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

Einstein wrote” "From a systematic theoretical point of view, we may imagine the process of evolution of an empirical science to be a continuous process of induction… But this point of view by no means embraces the whole of the actual process ; for it slurs over the important part played by intuition and deductive thought in the development of an exact science. As soon as a science has emerged from its initial stages, theoretical advances are no longer achieved merely by a process of arrangement. Guided by empirical data, the investigator rather develops a system of thought which, in general, is built up logically from a small number of fundamental assumptions, the so-called axioms.“ (https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/einstein/works/1910s/relative/ap03. htm )

5. Falsification

Can you solve this – Veritasium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKA4w2O61Xo

Karl Popper

“It is easy to obtain confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory—if we look for confirmations. Confirmations should count only if they are the result of risky predictions... A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice. Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or refute it.” — Karl Raimund Popper Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), 36.

6. Making judgements in scienceRichard Feynman on the Scientific Method - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KmimDq4cSU

- If it disagrees with experiment, it’s WRONG. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are who made the guess, or what his name is … If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. That’s all there is to it.

- It’s scientific only to say what’s more likely or less likely not to be proving all the time possible and impossible. From my knowledge of the world that I see around me, I think it’s more likely… it’s just more likely that’s all… it’s a good guess. And we are always trying to guess the most likely explanation, keeping in the back of the mind, that if it doesn’t work we then need to discuss the other possibility.

- … a good guess, calculate the consequences… agrees with evidence… does that mean the theory is right – no it’s just not proved wrong… there may be future discoveries – e.g. building on Newton’s Law. Through all that time the theory had failed to be proved wrong… we can never shown be right we can only be shown to be wrong.

How would you pick between competing scientific theories?

- Case study – the Copernican revolution

https://undsci.berkeley.edu/flowchart_noninteractive.php

Final thoughts:1.

2.

3.

Reference List:References are grouped by topic where possible. Typically, they are then ordered from most accessible to least accessible.

Remember, Wikipedia is a very reliable source for these types of matters – just don’t reference Wikipedia in a scientific report!

Epistemology

Eight ways of knowing - https://osc-ib.com/article/how-tok

PHILOSOPHY - Epistemology: Introduction to Theory of Knowledge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Y3utIeTPg

Empiricism

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/

https://www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class/110/8-empiricism.htm

Induction & Deduction

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/francis-bacon/

https://www.biography.com/scholar/francis-bacon

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/induction-problem/

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/gsjournal/deduction-and-induction-in-einstein-s-relativity-t7896.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219735/

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230306974_3

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/induction-problem/

Falsifiability/Falsification

Can you solve this – Veritasium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKA4w2O61Xo

https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/falsifiability-and-physics

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/

The Scientific Method / Knowledge construction in Science

http://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-the-scientific-method-and-why-do-so-many-people-get-it-wrong-65117

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2015/10/28/scientific-method-myth/#.XbWTrOgzY55

http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/dox/scientific_method.html

https://www.nap.edu/read/11625/chapter/8

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4131153/#Sec17