Questions tagged [philosophy-of-science]
for applied philosophical questions about the study of science, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the scientific method
1,101
questions
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2answers
32 views
How can one explain this conflict between philosophy and classical physics?
Consider two moving objects along X-axis direction with different speeds and different initial starting points. Let the initial distance of the objects be d0 and v1 is greater than v2 i.e v1>v2.
...
1
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0answers
52 views
Magical explanations in science? [on hold]
Why can scientists use a magical explanation such as "we do not know what's the origin of the first energy particle that existed in the universe, so we assume it was always there" with total impunity ...
0
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0answers
25 views
Natural/Artificial distinction
Is there in reality a distinction between natural and man-made products?
Can airplane be considered natural as much as a squirel or a mountain?
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0answers
33 views
David Lewis and probability
I have read a general overview on David Lewis in order to have an idea of his philosophical perspective and in particular about humean supervenience. I am wondering how Lewis considers probability in ...
2
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3answers
77 views
How to select between two competing theories?
Suppose we have two scientific theories A and B. They have different postulates but both make the same predictions. If the selection can not be taken out by Ochkam razor then how we select what theory ...
2
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1answer
178 views
Can any philosophy of mind be empirically verified?
(This is sort of a follow-up from this question)
Can dualism, materialism, or anything in between be empirically verified? There seems to be some disagreement here. This page presents both views ...
0
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1answer
152 views
What can be the repercussion for Philosophy of Science the discard of Math in Theoretical Physics? [closed]
The peer-reviewed journal Physics Essays published two days ago a paper where it is proven that a wrong math procedure is used in nuclear physics, for the calculation of the magnetic moments for ...
2
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0answers
110 views
Reference request - philosophy of history of science
I am interested in exploring philosophical aspects of the history of science, or philosophy of history of science, if you will.
Are there any canonical texts dealing particularly with the philosophy ...
3
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1answer
54 views
Popper and indeterminism, why is it part of philosophy?
Popper states that:
...There can be 2 incompatible theory, equally irrefutable; for example, determinism and his opposite, indeterminism.
Popper; Conjecture and Confutation chapter 8.
How can ...
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0answers
46 views
Popper on metaphisics [closed]
It'a actually a simple question, not articulated at all.
What's the role of metaphisic for Popper? I know that for him philosophy is not just non-sense nore simply a "lenguage clarificator", but apart ...
1
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0answers
14 views
Ethically dilemmas, empathy,aggression [closed]
Respected group members,
I want ask you that if food scarcity in group and other group have limited resources for survive , my wife and children dying with starvation would I morally right to attack ...
4
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0answers
112 views
Explanation vs. prediction in statistics and in the philosophy of science?
In the realm of statistics and machine learning, a lot of discussion has arisen recently around the difference between explaining and predicting: That the two are not the same, and that the difference ...
1
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0answers
68 views
How and why Aristotelian essentialism is a problem for Quine?
I cannot understand how and why the Aristotelian essentialism is problematic for Quine. I have tried to read articles on the theme but probably I am not smart enough to understand them. Could you ...
1
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0answers
25 views
What is Quine’s reductionism?
I am especially interested in how reductionism is related to the fact that even though science broadly comprehends a number of subjects, physics is paradigmatic.
3
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3answers
125 views
Does falsifiability merely demarcate science from non-science, or does it actually say we should reject non-science?
I see from a quick read of the Wikipedia article that falsifiability is argued by some philosophers to be the defining criterion of science, setting it apart from non-science (there's lots of talk ...
1
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5answers
125 views
Is Vox Day right about “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”?
https://donotlink.it/YOAV
It's quite amusing to hear self-proclaimed "rationalists" attempt to make use of this quote, since the claim that "extraordinary evidence" is required is fundamentally ...
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0answers
24 views
Pragmatic encroachment: how is the basis for X being accurate different from the basis of when it is accurate to say someone knows that X is accurate?
When is it accurate to say that a person (P) knows that X is true/accurate?
This question seems to be answered by the idea/concept of 'Pragmatic Encroachment';
The basic idea/concept of 'Pragmatic ...
-2
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1answer
69 views
Can the height in another dimension look different from different dimensions? [closed]
Can the height in another dimension look different from different dimensions that we know?
For example, can the width looks different than we see it?
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2answers
125 views
Do the dimensions have an infinite number of combinations of the appearance? [closed]
Can a piece of paper in our universe have more depth. something that we can't see. something that's more material. something that's more material. something that's more material. something that's more ...
2
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4answers
159 views
How do we know what we know is right?
The more i study science and maths these days, the more i continuously question myself whether all the knowledge we have built up until now is in fact true or correct.
But before being picky with ...
2
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0answers
56 views
Why is there no “Mario Bunge” entry in the SEP? Where could I find a valuable presentation of Mario Bunge's philosophy?
I only have a rudimentary knowledge of Mario Bunge's philosophy.
But what I've read in the Ontology part of his Treatise of basic philosophy seems much promising.
I'm astonished that Bunge is not ...
1
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1answer
102 views
Ultimate goal of science? [closed]
Sorry if I seem to be redundant about this or if my exposition is not clear enough.
May you help me clarify about what to rationally expect for the 'final explanation' that science could give us when ...
0
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0answers
58 views
Can anyone explain the concept of “being-thus”?
I was reading a letter from Einstein to Max Born that says something like this:
It is further characteristic of these physical objects that they
are thought of as arranged in a space-time ...
-2
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1answer
70 views
Can a different universe be built with three dimensions? [closed]
Can you theoretically create a universe that will have the same dimensions but will look different? For example, a paper that has a limit, or another similar dimension can it be different?
1
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0answers
50 views
What are the accomplishments of critical theory vs. logical positivism
Coming from a natural science viewpoint I find that logical positivism is much more important for scientific research than is critical theory. I've read the critics/flaws of logical positivism and ...
1
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1answer
38 views
Is there any correlation between Quine’s underdetermination and bayesian issues of old evidence and new theories?
Bayesianism has some faults some of them are the problem of old evidence and the issue of new theories. Are these two problems linked to Quine’s underdetermination? Or are they contrasting it? What is ...
0
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1answer
82 views
Do we really know that the laws of physics are consistent with our observations?
The question of whether your observations are consistent with the laws of physics is pretty much a mathematically defined question.
To say that the laws of physics are consistent with your ...
1
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3answers
89 views
Albert Camus's thoughts on Science in the “Myth of Sisyphus”
I am not able to completely comprehend his thoughts on science from the below excerpts from The Myth of Sisyphus. I would appreciate insights.
And here are trees and I know their gnarled surface, ...
2
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0answers
81 views
Quine, subjective probability and QM
I have just read Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist where Quine says:
“Probability? Of events? Restore extensionality (...). Of states of affairs? Treat quotationally, like de dicto. How much ...
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2answers
85 views
Can shapes be relative from different perspectives? [closed]
Can a material thing (being) have different shapes at the same time? I mean, can the sun be circular and quadratic at the same time? And can it be just as material.
To simplify the question. Can a ...
1
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1answer
83 views
Must an analysis of Being precede the positive sciences?
In the first few pages of Being and Time Heidegger writes:
such an inquiry [into foundations]... still needs a guideline... it
remains naive and opaque if... it leaves the meaning of being in
...
0
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0answers
27 views
Probabilistic, indeterministic and random in QM
This is a question about terminology used in QM since I need to clarify this aspect. Is “probabilistic” a synonym of “indeterministic”? And in case they are not synonyms, what do they exactly mean? ...
4
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3answers
122 views
Testing scientific theories inside a simulated universe
The background of my question relies on the following points.
Quine-Duhem thesis: it is difficult to test a theory with an experiment,
because the test would rely on other theories.
The discussion of ...
2
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3answers
109 views
Probability calculus and Quantum Mechanics [closed]
I am not an expert and probably this question highlights this. Anyway, is the probability calculus used in Quantum Mechanics? Does the concept of probability adopted in Quantum Mechanics satisfy the ...
0
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0answers
76 views
Distributions of outcomes in Quantum Mechanics
I have read an answer here about the probabilistic nature of QM and I am curious about why QM is able to predict only distributions of outcomes of an experiment. To be clearer, is QM’s inability of ...
1
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1answer
87 views
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 ...
9
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4answers
2k views
What does this Jacques Hadamard quote mean?
What does this Jacques Hadamard quote mean?
The shortest path between two truths in the real domain passes through the complex domain.
Is this a philosophical statement?
what is its mathematical ...
0
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1answer
88 views
What justified consciousness is an experience and not an thing? [closed]
No philosophers has justified that consciousnesses can be measured. Many philosophers have tried to describe the mind, but are there any specific scholars who describe justified methods to describe ...
2
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2answers
124 views
Is skepticism a contentious issue? [closed]
I haven’t thought much about the application of the idea ‘skepticism’ since the first year of my philosophy program, because it had already been sorted out to my satisfaction and the satisfaction of ...
0
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0answers
57 views
How is justification related to truth?
We all learned to believe in true belief; some of us don’t anymore. I’ve found that better ideas are available to us if we don’t. Some ideas are better (better justified by evidence and logic) than ...
3
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1answer
56 views
Ontology of space/time
Are space and/or time considered abstract objects or concrete objects? They seem causally inert yet more real than the typical abstract objects we think of.
3
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2answers
74 views
Does natural science assume indirect realism?
The wiki on Direct and Indirect Realism seems to claim that indirect realism is part of natural science. The wiki defines indirect realism as follows:
indirect or representative realism [is] the ...
0
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1answer
144 views
Why Quantum Mechanics states that nature is probabilistic? [duplicate]
I am new here and I am studying the philosophical implications of Quantum Mechanics. I read somewhere that QM and determinism are mutually exclusive and that QM involve a number of philosophers to ...
3
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4answers
167 views
What's the role of certainty in discussions about philosophical positions?
Karl Popper was one of the twentieth century’s preeminent philosophers of science. He was an avowed realist who was dedicated to the correspondence theory of truth. In his seventh decade of life, ...
3
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3answers
151 views
Is fallibilism a better option than absolute certainty?
Fallibilism is the epistemological thesis that no belief (theory, view, thesis, and so on) can ever be rationally supported or justified in a conclusive way. Always, there remains a possible doubt as ...
20
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6answers
7k views
Falsification in Math vs Science
In the beginning it was thought that the statement 1+1=0 is false, and necessarily so.
However, with the birth of modular arithmetic, it was found that indeed, 1+1 does indeed equal to 0 (in the mod 2 ...
0
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1answer
120 views
How should “knowledgeability” be defined? Is it merely w.r.t. to best scientific knowledge? [closed]
How should "knowledgeability" be defined?
Is it merely w.r.t. to best scientific knowledge? What about things that science cannot measure?
Or are there other "reasonable" forms of knowledge? Why ...
2
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3answers
168 views
The tree of knowledge
A group of scientists come into a hostel and start studying people's behaviour. They create subgroups sorting by countries, jobs, habits, and so on; build models to predict whether someone is up to ...
2
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4answers
204 views
Does evolution always entail progress?
It was Darwin who first introduced the concept of Evolution in his Evolution Theory. However, whenever he and in general people speak about Evolution, I always have the feeling that they connote it ...
1
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2answers
106 views
Does linguistic idealism imply scientific anti-realism, and are any existentialists committed to anti-realism for that reason?
Does linguistic idealism imply scientific anti-realism?
By scientific anti-realism I mean the opinion that the unobservable world we study with science is not real, not mind independent. By ...
