Questions tagged [philosophy-of-science]
for applied philosophical questions about the study of science, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the scientific method
1,353
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1answer
47 views
Quote from Kant about science
I've just watched a video of a Philosophy Professor who said this in a conference:
"paraphrasing Kant, the scientist does not work as an observer of reality. He rather works as an interrogator ...
2
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1answer
96 views
Native English speakers! Please, help me to understand Wilfrid Sellars' complicated sentence in his “Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man”
I am a Korean student who majors in philosophy.
Recently, I read Wilfrid Sellars' famous article "Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man," but I'm faced with a lot of complicated ...
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1answer
40 views
Inductive strength & tracking requirement
An inductive inference is usually considered strong if its conclusion is probably true, given true premises. In Tracking Track Records, Peter Lipton (giving credit to Nozick) suggests that a strong ...
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1answer
31 views
Georg Simmel and The problem of sociology [closed]
What is the problem of sociology according to Georg Simmel? (I have read his work on the problem of sociology that grants his view but not his issues with the same)
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28 views
Could someone help me interpret this article on the Many Worlds Interpretation?
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2001.03771.pdf
I am struggling to understand this paper because the depth in which the subject is discussed is much greater than my own. The topic is highly interesting to me, so ...
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0answers
38 views
A law about the importance of an activity and relation to its frequency?
I once read about a law (X's law), where from my memory it can be either of the following two:
You should keep doing something if you do it a lot (example sleep or eat)
If we keep doing something, ...
2
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1answer
275 views
What is a counter argument for the proposition that reaching the truth involves abandoning language and other intellectual instruments?
I have a linguist friend of mine who proposes that one should abandon all labels and paradigms to reach the ultimate truth, as they are deceptive. He proposes that you should strip all intellectual ...
4
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2answers
139 views
Does Bayesian epistemology solve Hume’s problem of induction?
Or, does it just sidestep it? Or, is it just completely unrelated to it? I’m having trouble seeing what the connection might be. It seems to me that Bayesians solve it by saying, take:
Your prior ...
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3answers
108 views
Aliens as a scientific explanation
Should we consider aliens as a scientific explanation for unexplained phenomena? Or is it outside the scope of what should be termed a scientific explanation?
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1answer
60 views
Which field in the natural sciences always requires accurate and precise scientific instruments? [closed]
I am a high school student that believes as many others that natural sciences is an area of knowledge that is about reliable information. However, I see that scientific instruments play an significant ...
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0answers
148 views
Does this example invalidate Popper's notion of falsifiability and science?
Consider the following two propositions:
A: There exists extraterrestrial life somewhere in the universe.
B: There does not exist extraterrestrial life anywhere in the universe.
B is just the ...
6
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2answers
365 views
Are There Any Hegelian Approaches to Modern Physics?
In his section on Force and the "inverted world" in "Phenomenology of Spirit," Hegel provides a dialectical account of Newtonian physics and gravity that I find very interesting, ...
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1answer
63 views
What would be a Philosophical Implications of Relativity Theory? [duplicate]
If you were to state one philosophical implication of relativity theory what would you choose and why?
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2answers
106 views
A question about the Ludwing Boltzmann idea of a scientific theory expressed in the book “On the significance of theories(1890)”
I don't understand a passage in which the great physicist Ludwig Boltzmann , talking about his epistemological point of view, says
I am of the opinion that the task of a theory consists in
...
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4answers
236 views
How are space and time related?
We know from Einstein's special theory of relativity that space and time together form a spacetime continuum and are interdependent. They share a mathematical structure and any fundamental theory of ...
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3answers
222 views
Why is the universe governed by very few laws of high generality instead of lots of particular ones?
The universe has a very wide variety of phenomena.
However, there is not, similarly, a zoo of physical laws. Instead, it appears that the universe is governed by a small number of laws that are valid ...
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3answers
203 views
Is the theory of relativity scientifically proven? [closed]
I am writing an essay and talked about a point of of the development in the force of gravity, I talked about Issac Newton’s findings and how they were later corrected by Albert Einstein. Was the ...
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2answers
2k views
Why is ancient Asian philosophy so implicit and allegorical compared to the ancient Greek philosophy which seems more explicit and abstract?
Why is ancient Asian philosophy so implicit and allegorical, compared to the ancient Greek philosophy, which seems more explicit and abstract?
If I had to guess, I would say that it's due to language ...
2
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0answers
58 views
Question from a high school student about role of natural sciences?
I am doing my essay on natural sciences methodology therefore, I wanted to give the example how according to the scientific method, new valid evidence could add to or correct previous knowledge. ...
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0answers
33 views
Is it standard to distinguish two versions of the hypothetico-deductivist conception of science : confirmation approach and falsificationism?
In his course on Philosophy Of Science, Pr Folse ( Loyola University New Orleans) distinguishes two trends in the " empricist consensus " ( that emerged in the 19th century) : inductivism ...
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1answer
164 views
Do light particles exist [closed]
This question is kind of a mash between physics and philosophy. If I should delete this post and put it on the physics stackexchange, let me know.
If light travels at 299,792,458 m/s, then does it ...
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3answers
223 views
Specific example of Sam Harris' opinion on morality
I listened to some audios also read some blogs about position of sam harris that science can guide moral behavior.
I get the idea roughly.
However, I would appreciate if someone can give a specific ...
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1answer
111 views
Does the practice of firing dissenters from universities undermine the meaningulness of scientific consensus? [closed]
I am constantly bombarded with links to articles and videos by professors, doctors, PhDs and the likes who claim that vaccines are harmful, dangerous and ineffective at preventing infectious diseases. ...
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0answers
50 views
Who was the first to posit something akin to the falsifiability principle?
Peirce in CP 5.199 writes something very similar to falsifiability principle namely the following:
...But these logicians refuse to admit that we can ever have a right to
conclude definitely that a ...
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0answers
104 views
Is paraconsistent logic used in other areas of mathematics other than discrete mathematics and in other areas such as physics and philosophy?
Is paraconsistent logic used in other areas of mathematics other than discrete mathematics and in other areas such as physics and philosophy? I heard that paraconsistent logic is an area of discrete ...
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3answers
117 views
Are there truths that the scientific method cannot explore, but maybe alternative methods can? [duplicate]
Are there truths that the scientific method cannot explore, but maybe alternative methods can? Does the scientific method subsume all possible valid ways to obtain true knowledge? Or are there ...
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0answers
30 views
Who are some 19th century philosophers to posit something akin to meaning holism and how did they argue in favor of it?
According to this Whewell debated with Stuart Mill on "Holism vs. Particularism".
What were their arguments in support of the 'meaning holism' if they had any?
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2answers
66 views
Is it possible to create a machine that converts one matter type to another? [closed]
In general, there is no such thing as iron protons or aluminum electrons. There are different types of atoms, but the only thing that is different is how many of each thing there is.
Would it be ...
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0answers
46 views
“Inference to the Best Explanation if the Best is Sufficiently Good”
The reliability of Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE) is sometimes contested because it may end up recommending the best of a bad lot, which might require a modification of IBE (e.g. contra ...
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1answer
56 views
Who was the first to state that scientific theories are sets of statements or propositions?
During the late 19th century or early 20th C.S Peirce defined scientific theories as sets of propositions and made some interesting assertions about them.
Who was the first to define scientific ...
2
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1answer
59 views
What is “lack” in Aristotle's “three starting-points” of form, lack and matter?
The following quote from Aristotle's Metaphysics is utterly baffling to me:
The causes and starting-points of distinct things are distinct in a way, but in a way--if we are speaking universally and ...
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0answers
26 views
Did C.S Peirce ever express anything close to the paradigm shift concept?
Since the study of Peirce seems to have a large number of papers in the philosophical corpus where researchers ascribe to him several concepts that were (re?)discovered several decades after his death ...
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57 views
Did C.S Peirce ever express anything in the same vein to meaning holism?
C.S Peirce's philosophy is considered a predecessor to the logical positivism.
In some respects Peirce is also thought as having prefigured several major philosophical ideas that came after logical ...
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2answers
46 views
Is it possible to have a scientific review of a method if the author doesn't have direct experience of it?
It seems like it is possible to conduct scientific research without actually getting close to the sample/specimen. However, what if the "sample" of the research is a method? For example, ...
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0answers
37 views
How much of C.S Peirce's categories is new to him?
One of the very early papers of Peirce deal with his categories.
How much of his categories are original to him?
I am particularly interested in the "firstness" which he characterizes as the ...
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1answer
74 views
Are there any philosophers who contemplated the nature of questions?
Are there any philosophers who contemplated the nature of questions as an object of conception themselves and studied their possible aims?
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3answers
63 views
Epistemology vs Philosophy of Science
If epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge and ways of knowing, and if science is the ultimate system for the acquisition of knowledge, my question is simple: What is the difference ...
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22 views
True Thinkables - with regards to the Identity Theory of Truth
What exactly is a 'true thinkable'? According to John McDowell, 'true thinkables' are identical with facts(1996:27-8,179-80). This seems, if i may, a bit truistic and am left with no concrete ...
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3answers
107 views
Clarification of definitions of physical quantities
What "a measure" means in definitions?
I was trying to find a proper definition of temperature and then I got into some troubles. I always thought of temperature as:
Temperature = a measure ...
2
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0answers
133 views
Material theory of induction: why not abandon induction altogether?
John Norton defends a material theory of induction, based on the idea that universal inference schemes cannot account for the strength of inductive inferences. Whether a specific induction is good or ...
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2answers
46 views
What is it called when two theories ultimately become one theory in science?
I am trying to think of an example of scientific explanation whose scope was in fact broader than we initially thought. The idea would be the following:
Initially, we used H (the explanation) to ...
0
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1answer
67 views
Are unfalsifiable statements valid? Two Medical Doctors met with Jesus and wrote a statement about it
I'm interested in your take on unfalsifiable statements. Please consider the following scenario:
Let’s say two medical doctors living together, Bill & Janet, claims that they met “Jesus” in their ...
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1answer
150 views
Does falsifiability imply meaningfulness and what are some of the drawback of falsifiability? [duplicate]
This is a combination of basically two different questions, but they are interrelated.
My first question is pretty simple. Can we equate falsifiability and meaningfulness? I think at least in the ...
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5answers
3k views
How do rationalists justify the scientific method?
From what I understand rationalism allows some knowledge to be acquired innately, and that rationalism was created as the opposite of empiricism. Since the scientific method assumes that knowledge is ...
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0answers
114 views
Does Hume's Fork have a third prong?
If so, does it have a name? I'm especially interested in search terms that I can use for further reading.
In physics, we're familiar with the distinction between "relations of ideas" and &...
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3answers
113 views
Are there examples of the narrowing scope of scientific explanations?
I am trying to think of an example of scientific explanation whose scope was in fact more limited than we initially thought. The idea would be the following:
Initially, we used H (the explanation) to ...
0
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0answers
61 views
How can we differentiate between change and progress in the area of arts and natural sciences? [duplicate]
I'm studying a branch of philosophy, which is theory of knowledge and I need to investigate this question. I think that in art, it is difficult to say there is progress... whereas natural sciences ...
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3answers
315 views
According to Chalmers, can neuroscience resolve the “hard problem of consciousness”?
This is a question that aims to clarify Chalmers's "hard problem of consciousness".
Suppose one day neuroscientists figured out how exactly to reproduce all (or virtually all) human ...
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99 views
Quine and the Myth of the Given
To give you some background details about myself: I have a deep interest in Quine's work and Naturalism in Philosophy; I have been independently studying and reading Quine's work and his relation to ...
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2answers
126 views
Was Peirce the first to distinguish objective and subjective possibilities?
I was reading IEP article about C.S Peirce where some of his logical notations for modal logic are presented, and one them seem to make a distinction between a subjective formula and an objective one....
