Questions tagged [philosophy-of-science]
for applied philosophical questions about the study of science, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the scientific method
1,167
questions
2
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0answers
48 views
Why did Hilary Putnam change of opinion towards Quantum Logic?
Hilary Putnam is known for having proposed a radical change in our thinking about the physical universe: He proposed that the universe was fundamentally based on Quantum Logic, and not in Classical ...
1
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1answer
116 views
Comparisons between two notions of existence
I have the following, rather naive question:
To what extent can the a priori existence of mathematical objects be reasonably compared with the seemingly a posteriori existence of objects established ...
0
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0answers
51 views
Is science based on David Hume's “A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence”?
"A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. … no
testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless the testimony
be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more ...
0
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0answers
17 views
Humean Supervenience and the Mosaic
I have read a lot of times the definition of Humean Supervenience and the usual quote by Lewis according to which Humean supervenience is “ It is the doctrine that all there is to the world is a vast ...
-4
votes
2answers
71 views
Science, religion, or philosophy? [closed]
Necessary introduction.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's Omega Point Theory is a belief system related to convergence towards divine unification.
Tippler's version of this theory relies on ...
0
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1answer
53 views
Causality of effects of alcohol to the brain [closed]
According to Judea Pearl's book The book of Why it took several decades to establish a scientific consensus that smoking causes lung cancer (amongst other diseases).
I was wondering whether it took a ...
-1
votes
6answers
170 views
Is scepticism about human-caused climate change a pseudoscience?
National Center for Science Education, have described climate change denial as pseudoscience. However,IMHO there are some valid arguments based on empirical data that contradict the "hockey stick" ...
0
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2answers
113 views
Importance of technology in Western thought
Ours is a world which is full of promises that advanced technology, such as autonomous cars, cloud computing, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence will somehow bring forth a future worth ...
5
votes
3answers
308 views
The conflict of creationism and evolution. How can we know the truth?
the demands of evolution and creation cannot
be reconciled with each other because they represent two
fundamentally different, mutually hostile, and mutually
exclusive systems. They do not ...
4
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0answers
68 views
Some questions on causality and modern science
Note: I'm translating the vocabulary from Spanish so there may be some erroneous terms. If so, please edit them.
In Causality: the place of the causal principle in modern science by Mario Bunge, the ...
2
votes
1answer
49 views
Aristotle's explanation of change
I am a bit confused as to how Aristotle accounts for change (accidental and substantial). I seem to understand the idea of a substance being the compound of material and form to some degree, but how ...
5
votes
4answers
242 views
What is the value of a formal model in science?
In science we often use formal models (by which I mean a mathematical structure composed of assumptions, variables, and equations, which might be solved/simulated to derive analytical insights and/or ...
2
votes
1answer
66 views
What is different between causation and causality [closed]
What is different between causation and causality?
And, if there is any difference, do most philosophers recognize it or is it just common among UCL or Cambridge scholars?
Thank you for your answer ...
0
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1answer
21 views
what makes “historical explanation” differ from “initial condition-covering law explanation”?
Does anyone have an argument that can refute the following statement?
In a deterministic world, historical explanation cannot be different from "initial condition - covering law explanation."
4
votes
2answers
123 views
Question about conditionalization and probability
I am working on a problem set and I am not sure if I am heading in the right direction.
The scenario: "Suppose three identical boxes are presented to you, and you are told that one box contains two ...
3
votes
1answer
84 views
What are main references on decolonization of knowledge/science?
Here and there I hear a lot about decolonization of knowledge or science.
What does that mean?
What thinkers believe that knowledge or scientific knowledge or scientific practices or academic ...
0
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0answers
76 views
Do things exist just because they exist OR they are given that existence?
We know that some phenomena do not exist, like Greek gods, but some exist, like an apple on a desk. I doubt anyone could have proposed an answer to it, but I wonder if there is something which lets ...
4
votes
2answers
44 views
Question about anchoring and adjustment (Tversky and Kahneman) and why anchoring often yields correct judgments
I am working on a problem set and I am having some difficulty wrapping my head around a concept introduced by Tversky and Kahneman. My problem set asks the question "Why does anchoring nevertheless ...
4
votes
4answers
130 views
What distinguishes “individuals” in physics?
I'd like to ask you a question: a table is made of some atoms. It's almost empty. The table is stable because of the force between the atoms. We know that a water cup will not fall off on the table ...
2
votes
6answers
192 views
According to Aquinas, why doesn't God need a cause but everything else does? Why would God resolve the problem of infinite regress?
Do you think the explanation for the universe could be something physical or does it have to be metaphysical?
-1
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2answers
112 views
How can a belief in the 'objectivity' of the scientific method be anything other than mythical transcendence?
The Scientific method purportedly achieves the deriving of objective truth by removing the unavoidably subjective nature of human knowledge from the loop.
This system claims that by following ...
0
votes
3answers
85 views
Do HeLa cells prove immortality?
Does modern science, especially HeLa cells, prove that immortality (in the classic sense) is real (for these cells) or possible in the future?
2
votes
2answers
286 views
Did God have a choice in creating our universe?
Einstein asked this question originally :
What really interests me is whether God could have created the world any differently; in other words, whether the requirement of logical simplicity admits ...
5
votes
2answers
253 views
What is the word for 'regarding the structure of a theory'?
I want to analyse some thermodynamical theories, i.e. theories that are concerned with temperature, heat, pressure, volume, states, systems etc. etc.
These theories obviously differ in many ways. ...
4
votes
1answer
100 views
How does the philosophy of science explore original research formulation?
Although rarely admitted or communicated, in scientific research it's quite common to change the originally formulated question once insurmountable obstacles have made an answer difficult or ...
0
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1answer
37 views
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?
4
votes
1answer
245 views
Was there a “mechanist” program of early rationalists, like Descartes and Leibniz?
Leibniz and Descartes are said to put forth "mechanist philosophies," but I am having trouble identifying what "mechanist" means. Does it involve their affinity to natural science and mathematics and ...
1
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2answers
80 views
Solution to the Grandfather's paradox - Inverse reincarnation? [closed]
One of the premises of the grandfather paradox in time travel is that of inconsistency. I.e, going back in time to kill your grandfather or grandmother prevents your birth. The solution is simple, ...
4
votes
1answer
702 views
How can complex material systems emerge in ways that allow them to transcend fundamental material structures?
One of the quandaries of reductionism from what I understand is how complex systems can emerge to overtake simple ones. This may sound convoluted, so bear with me as I try to explain.
According to a ...
21
votes
10answers
5k views
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
78 views
Wittgenstein on Mechanics
Can someone explain what Wittgenstein was trying to say in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus ? Specifically propositions 6.341-6.343. What does he mean when he says that a system like Newtonian Mechanics ...
-1
votes
1answer
55 views
Prove the following facts about Conditionalization
Prove that when an agent conditionalizes on new evidence, her credence in a proposition that entails the evidence cannot decrease. That is, when H entails E, it must be the case that cr2(H) is greater ...
0
votes
1answer
72 views
Where can I find arguments for animal rights?
I'm asking this question on behalf of https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/users/47/curi
I'm a philosopher (and programmer) attempting to research and diagram arguments relating to animal rights. I'm ...
1
vote
1answer
64 views
Confusion about the nature, defininition, and subject of study of Epistemology, Gnosiology and Phillosophy of Science
I am confused with the terms and the branches of phillosophy.
Here is an example where all 3 terms were used.
I always though phillosophy of science and epistemology were the exact same thing while ...
1
vote
0answers
74 views
Post-Positivism's Relationship to Post-Modernism
In A Nice Derangement of Epistemes by John H. Zammito, he attempts to "deflate" certain "extravagant gestures in philosophy of language" as he believes they "threaten to undermine indispensable canons ...
1
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1answer
33 views
Corroboration in Popper's system
Why corroboration gives to a theory increasing "value", as he states in his "logic of scientific discovery".
The question is simple, but I need a complex answer, one that can't be used to justify ...
0
votes
2answers
120 views
Epistemology and definition of Theory in Science
Which branch of philosophy is the authority and thus has the capacity to define what IS theory in science? I have linked to the definition of Theory by Simon Blackburn in Oxford Dictionary of ...
14
votes
8answers
5k views
Does every truth have to be provable based on evidence?
I know the answer is "no" in general due to Gödel's Theory of Incompleteness, but I mean this question in a more real-world sense (i.e. scientific sense). In other words, I am talking about empirical ...
2
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5answers
274 views
Has science ever disproved philosophical theories?
I am aware that science and philosophy, in their modern guise, are two separate beasts that never cross the same domains but sometimes it happens that philosophy influences science and that science ...
5
votes
3answers
226 views
Understanding Kant vs. Hume for a non-philosopher
I am trying to self-study a bit of philosophy. I am an applied mathematician by trade, and am therefore drawn to Kant's work on the limits of human knowledge, in particular his exchange with Hume. I ...
1
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3answers
201 views
How to reconcile that physicists and science educators use the word “theory” incompatibly?
When science denialists say "just a theory", they are roundly chastised. Science educators (teachers, reporters, essayists, etc) are united that the word theory has a strong requirement:
Berkeley: "a ...
0
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2answers
139 views
Please help with clarifying whether a science assumes the following axiom
It seems to me that the goal of science is to describe with the most precision the world we perceive through our senses. It seems to me that actually science has an axiom:
There exists some final ...
0
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4answers
80 views
When writing scientific papers Why there is not a standard to declare all the things based on which a person will argue?
Lets say I am a scientists and I want to write a scientific paper about some matter of a physics for example. In that paper I would say for example that the universe is expanding (or some other well ...
0
votes
1answer
49 views
Boltzmann brain - how are the laws of physics presented?
Does the Boltzmann brain scenario also assume that the laws of physics are presented consistently for each individual brain? In other words:
1) Why do we assume that the types of brains fluctuated ...
0
votes
2answers
94 views
Leo Strauss' Critique of Modern Science
I recently read Leo Strauss's views on modern science, as expanded in Alan Bloom's "The Closing of the American Mind". In a (very small) nutshell, Strauss had the extraordinary idea that modern ...
7
votes
2answers
612 views
What is the difference between 'accidental' and 'contingent'?
What is different between 'accidental' and 'contingent'?
I thought that accidental contains intentional notation while Contingent does not. But there could be an intentional action that turns out to ...
1
vote
2answers
56 views
What is Quine’s Confirmation theory?
I have just read that Quine relies on his confirmation theory to establish if a scientific theory is “valid” or not. But I am not sure to have understood what is Quine’s confirmation theory and why ...
2
votes
3answers
128 views
What kind of questions can science answer?
Please bear with me, as I am self-studying philosophy as a beginner.
My questions are about the limitations of empirical science.
During my reading of some books, I've come across statements of the ...
8
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3answers
3k views
Does Darwin owe a debt to Hegel?
I just realized that Darwin's theory of evolution is very much historicist, and resembles Hegel's notion of an arc of history: evolution is progressive and moves with purpose in an almost dialectical ...
3
votes
2answers
51 views
What is the difference between instrumentalism and operationalism?
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has the following definitions for these two perspectives on science:
Instrumentalism:
"the view that theories are merely instruments for predicting ...
