Science Luosuo Version 1

Knowledge and Inquiry Questions / ​ Parallels ​ / ​ Main Ideas Notes Science: Its Validity and Function Readings used so udh to read stufs 1. Bacon's Idols of the Mind Science began with ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN NATURAL PHENOMENA through CAUSE AND EFFECT with Philosophers such as... State 2 Significant Paradigm Shifts and what they suggest State Aristotle's’ 4 Causes Thales ● Theory: Everything is made out of Water ○ Water changes with temperature: Rock → Water → Air ○ Plants: Appear after Rain → Another form of Water ○ All living things require Water ○ All Land ends at Water: The whole Earth is Floating on Water ■ Has Emerged from Water ■ Constituted of Water Aristotle ● Causality: Aristotle’s 4 Causes (with the e.g. of the Statue of Liberty) ○ Material: The ​ Materials ​ x is Composed of ■ E.g. Copper, Iron etc ○ Efficient: Preceding force that ​ pushes x into Existence ■ Construction Workers, Soldering, Hammering ■ What brings the Materials together ○ Formal: Form, ​ Function or Essence ​ of x; what it does when it is Flourishing ■ Lady Liberty ■ Potential that can be Actualised > Conscious Choice ○ Final: What x exist “for the sake of”; the ​ ultimate purpose ■ Celebrate Freedom ■ Subjective ● Aimed to come up with Consistent Definition of Something //Ship of Theseus ○ In rejection of Materialism: That everything consists Solely of Matter ○ Find Essential and Accidental Properties: What is needed to make something something? //Aristotle & Thales: Trying to prove that x is made of y

Archimedes ● Testing the Purity of Gold through its Density ○ Practical Science Claudius Ptolemy ● Astronomy ● Ptolemaic System: Geocentric; with Earth as the Centre of System of Planets ○ By observation Nicolaus Copernicus ● Heliocentric System: Sun as the Center Paradigm Shift: Copernican Revolution ● Change from Geocentric to Heliocentric System → Science depends on Coherence > Correspondence, but is affected by Correspondent Truths ● Change from believing that humans were created by God to Darwin's theory of evolution: humans were descended from apes ● //Fallibilism: Finds Better and Better Perceptions of Reality > Finds Correspondent Reality Galileo ● Tradition in Religion vs Science: Trial due to Heliocentric Beliefs Isaac Newton ● Clockwork Universe Model: Determinism; the Idea that Humans have no Free Will Albert Einstein ● Theory of Relativity: Causal and Absolute → Causal and Relativistic; Newtonian Laws are the same in every inertial reference frame (what an observer considers to be at rest) ○ Laws of Physics behave differently in the reference frame of car going at a constant speed and reference frame of a car stopping ○ Explanation: https://curiosity.com/videos/breakthrough-junior-challenge-some-co ol-ways-of-looking-at-the-special-theory-of-relativity-ryan-chester Quantum Mechanics ● Planck ● Bohr ● Heisenberg Uncertainty: Observation affects Observed particle’s position/velocity With the Context of Science we can now explore Various QUALITIES OF SCIENCE to DESCRIBE WHAT SCIENTISTS DO

State the 3 Steps of Science in the Simplistic Baconian View State the Theory-Based Paradox that undermines the Baconian View State the 5 other problems with the Baconian View of Science Qualities ● A Mode of Human Activity ● Body of Conceptual/Theoretical Knowledge ● Search for Universal Laws ● Methodology ● Cause & Effect Google’s Definition: ​ The ​ intellectual ​ and ​ practical ​ activity encompassing the systematic study ​ of the ​ structure ​ and ​ behaviour ​ of the ​ physical ​ and ​ natural ​ world through ​ observation ​ and ​ experiment ​ . Baconian View ● Simplistic Definition ● Method: 1. Accumulate ​ Observations 2. Infer General Law ​ to Fit Observations 3. Conduct Experiments to Prove ​ General Law (Possible but not necessary) Problems ● Inferred General Law Shapes evidence-gathering: ​ Confirmation Bias upon noticing Pattern will lead Scientist to ​ find Examples fitting his specific Pattern ● If no ​ General Law ​ is Postulated: ​ No Method to Guide Observations ○ Even if one chooses to Observe Everything that occurs Without a postulation: Nothing to Guide him on what to Observe Problem of Induction ​ : Highlights lack of Justification for 1. Generalising a rule based on specific observations given that ​ our observations may simply be limited a. “All Swans are White” given observed white swans before the discovery of black Swans 2. Uniformity ​ of Nature: Presupposing that events in the future will occur as they have in the past a. Circular argument: Laws of physics will hold as they have always held in the past 3. Causal Connections: Induction from sense experience to find causal connections (A causes B; Fire causes one to feel heat when one’s hand is nearby) comes from identifying a ​ constant conjunction ​ (of instances of fire and instances of heat) from which it is unjustified to claim that there is a causal connection 4. Numerous Different generalisations ​ can be made by induction with same data

a. Analogy of Grue: Something is Grue if it has been observed at time t and it is green, or it is not observed yet at time t and it is blue b. Premise 1: Observed Emeralds are Grue c. Premise 2: All Emeralds are Grue i. Suggests that unobserved emeralds would turn blue after time t d. Argument from Occam’s razor that Grue is more Complex than Green i. BUT if we create another definition Bleen where something is Bleen if it has been observed a t time t and it is blue, or it is not observed yet at time t and it is green, Green can be made to be the more complex definition as all emeralds are grue and bleen ii. Crux of the Problem: Inductive argument supports a generalisation of future instances that works and is not necessarily less complex ● One’s sense may be Misleading ● Scientist may Struggle to fit Theory into their Misguided Coherent System ○ Prevents ​ Paradigm Shifts ○ Correspondent Truths arising from Observation that Challenge Theories Rejected ● Khun: Theory-Ladeness of Observations due to language ○ Language holds theoretical assumptions → Guides Observations → Guides Expressions of Observations ■ Reinforces the paradigm ○ Bias: Other typifications could yield different observations ○ Theory provides the language for and precedes observation statements ● Underdetermination of Theory by Evidence ○ // Confirmation Holism:Scientific Claims are tested during observation in large groups ○ // Grue POI: Theory Choice is not governed exclusively by observation ■ Different theories may be derived from the same set of data KEY PROBLEM: WITH THEORY = BIASED, WITHOUT THEORY = UNGUIDED Qualities of the nature of scientific knowledge in the Baconian View (that are carried over in HDM) include Define Parsimony Define Occam’s Razor Give 3 Reasons why why Parsimony is a Valuable Heuristic Parsimony ● To prefer the ​ least complicated explanation ​ for an observation when weighing hypotheses ● A.k.a Occam’s Razor: When presented with ​ competing hypothetical answers to a problem ​ , one should ​ select the answer that makes the fewest assumptions ● //Abduction: Inference to the best explanation

(practical rather than certain method) Value ● ≠ An infallible optimal method ○ = A practical mode of thinking ● Simple theories are preferable to complex ones as they are ​ easier to test ○ Prevents one from coming up with ad hoc hypotheses (hypotheses made to modify a theory to save it from being disproven) ■ Allows for ​ Falsifiability ​ so that one can find information in support of/against the theory ● Probability Theory: Increas