RI Science Lecture 2 (Problem of Demarcation) 2023

SCIENCELecture 2: The Problem of Demarcation I

Overview◦The Problem of Demarcation◦Verificationism◦Falsificationism

Problem of Demarcation◦Recall: ◦The unique and extraordinary success of Science since the Scientific Revolution (17thcentury) in providing us with useful knowledge to control and predict natural phenomena◦The desire of other fields of knowledge to attain a similar level of esteem (and influence?) by associating themselves with Science◦2 main questions:◦How to determine what is Science and what isn’t Science?◦Why does it even matter?◦3 possible categories:◦Science◦Pseudo-science◦Non-science (doesn’t try to pass itself off as science, e.g. Humanities)◦E.g. Astronomy vs Astrology vs Science Fiction novel (e.g. Dune)

Exercise: Science, Pseudoscience or Non-science?◦Acupuncture (the belief that by inserting needles into various parts of the body, you can restore normal energy balance to relieve pain and cure various disorders)◦Astronomy◦Botany (the study of plants)◦Creationism (the belief that the theory of evolution is false and that each species was uniquely created by God)◦History◦Homeopathy (the belief that an extremely small quantity of a substance that can cause certain symptoms in a healthy person can cure similar symptoms in an unhealthy person)◦Ethics◦Economics◦Literary Criticism◦Psychology◦Psychoanalysis (a set of theories and therapeutic techniques that deal with the unconscious mind and form a method of treatment for mental disorders by helping people to release repressed emotions and experiences –making the unconscious conscious)

Problem of Demarcation◦Not a straightforward question◦Possible criteria:◦1) Science as “the attempt to understand, explain and predict the world we live in” (B, 1) ◦but then, so does religion, astrology, fortune telling, psychoanalysis and history!◦2) Science as that which employs experimentation ◦but not all sciences do (e.g. astronomy and many social sciences)◦3 traditional answers: Verificationism, Falsificationismand Kuhnian Paradigmmatism

Verificationism◦Aka the Traditional View of Science where a scientist attempts to confirm a hypothesis by finding evidence to suggest that it is true based on induction◦Assumes the principle of the uniformity of nature, i.e. that the future will resemble the past◦Once there is a good amount of supporting evidence, the hypothesis is accepted as provisionally true◦Founders: the Vienna Circle, aka the Logical Positivists (LP) aka Logical Empiricists in the 1920s◦One of LP’s central tenets is Verificationism: A criterion of meaning where a proposition is onlymeaningfulif it can be definitively and conclusively determined to be either true or false◦LP held that all knowledge should be reduced to logical and scientific foundations◦This is because all meaningful propositions are either analytic a priori (hence logically verifiable; essentially math or logic) or synthetic a posteriori (hence empirically verifiable; essentially science). ◦In other words, they deny