Questions tagged [demarcation]

In philosophy of science, the demarcation problem refers to the problem how to between science and non-science (including pseudo-science).

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Is thermodynamics science? [closed]

Areas of science are defined by what they study. Electromagnetism studies electric / magnetic forces, astronomy studies stars etc. The thing studied by thermodynamics is entropy. What is interesting ...
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What is (or should be) the logical structure of a demarcation argument?

I am working on a scholarly article that attempts to define "theory" in my scholarly field, which is a social science. (My field is information systems, mainly a hybrid between information ...
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The demarcation problem of mathematics

The demarcation problem in the context of philosophy is usually used to mean the demarcation problem of science, the problem of separating science from non-science. However, what about the demarcation ...
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On Karl Popper's criterion of falsifiability, vs. verifiability

Karl Popper famously said that falsifiability is the distinguishing criterion of science. However, what about statements that are not falsifiable, but verifiable, that is, there is an observation or ...
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Is there a universally accepted definition of what constitutes 'science' from a philosophy of science perspective?

The term science gets bandied about so much that it is not always clear what is meant. This is fine in conversation, etc. But it becomes problematic when the question becomes, is there a proper domain ...
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Why is memetics not more widely accepted?

The idea of a meme, as an idea which self-replicates subject to Darwinian evolution, was conceived by biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene. Psychologist Susan Blackmore developed the idea ...
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Is economics a science according to Popperian and Lakatosian standards? [duplicate]

According to Karl Popper's falsification criterion only a falsifiable theory is said to be a scientific theory. If this is true, is Economics falsifiable and hence considered scientific?
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Is economics a science?

In class, I made the argument that economics is not science, because it cannot undertake repeatable experiments. Someone rebutted: this would mean that I am ignore an emerging body of work, some by ...
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What is Wittgenstein referring to in 4.113

Philosophy limits the disputable sphere of natural science Does this refer to the demarcation problem (what is natural science) or occam's razor (what is the best explanation)? Or is it meant ...
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Why was the quest for an objective universal demarcation criteria deemed untenable after Kuhn?

I know that Kuhn had developed his own demarcation criteria to determine whether something is science or not. But according to my lecturer the quest for an objective, universal demarcation criteria ...
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Is "Why is the sky blue?" a philosophical question or scientific?

Why is "Why is the sky blue?" such a common question made by children? And why has that question about the question never been asked before? Is it that the question is just a cultural artifact, that ...
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How important are Quine and Feyerabend to the philosophy of science and the demarcation problem?

I've listened to two sets of lectures on the philosophy of science that treat Quine's results on underdetermination, the dissolution of the analytic/synthetic distinction, and confirmation holism as ...
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How to distinguish philosophy and literature? [closed]

How can we impartially distinguish philosophy and literature? In other words, if in the whole of an author's work there is not one single knowledge claim, then is it misnomer that the work be ...
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What is Kant's influence on philosophy of science and the demarcation problem?

Kant's proof of the existence of synthetic apriori knowledge was a response to Hume's fork and his views the problem of induction. Given the relevance of these two concepts to the philosophy of ...
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Can one speak unambiguously of "the" scientific method?

When people in general discuss science, they talk about the scientific method as if it were a fixed and universally agreed-upon principle. In a show I saw recently by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, he ...
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Per Kuhn's "puzzle solving" demarcation criteria, don't Creationism and Lysenkoism simply fall into the category of "normal science"?

Kuhn classfies science into two phases: periods of revolutionary science, where theories themselves are being challenged (for example when Newtonian mechanics was being supplanted by quantum mechanics)...
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The demarcation problem and the materialism/dualism debate?

Presumably the end game of dualist philosophers is to definitively prove the existence of ontologically separate mental states which cannot be reduced to brain states. If they succeed in doing so, ...
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