Questions tagged [philosophy-of-science]
for applied philosophical questions about the study of science, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the scientific method
1,213
questions
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28 views
Argument for Emission theory or extramission theory
I read on Wikipedia and T.S.Kuhn's book that Emission theory or extramission theory prevailed for around two thousand years.
I want to ask that if light beams came out of eyes then how was the fact ...
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1answer
199 views
Religion vs science (or religion vs atheism) [closed]
I spent my childhood with very religious people. Currently, I am PhD student in engineering.
Religious person, without understanding science, thinks that an atheist is wrong. And atheist, without ...
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1answer
52 views
Newbie Questions on the Demarcation Problem
1) Is Astrology Science?
Popper says science is distinguished from non-science by whether the subject in question is falisfiable. So would Astrology and homeopathic medicine be considered science? ...
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2answers
152 views
In light of COVID-19, what scientific justification is there for CERN? [closed]
Among the myriad of questions pertaining to scientific research and any cost/benefit analysis might justify said research which has been amplified by the current pandemic crisis, one glaring one is ...
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1answer
59 views
Is the “SAID principle” science?
Within sports science the SAID principle asserts that the human body adapts specifically to imposed demands.
For example lifting heavy weights make you better at lifting heavy weights, whereas running ...
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2answers
253 views
Is Quantum Bayesianism a viable solution to interpretational problems of quantum mechanics? [closed]
I noticed that Quantum Bayesianism (Qbism) seems to solve a number of issues in QM like non-locality, decoherence and the measurement problem. But I am not sure if physicists and philosophers would ...
4
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1answer
437 views
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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2answers
121 views
Does good chess strategy reduce to the rules of the game?
I've been trying to understand what is meant by words like reduction and reductionism in different contexts. Being somewhat scientifically minded, I enthusiastically embrace reduction as a strategy ...
2
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1answer
102 views
Is there a logical argument according to which at least some part of biology isn't scientific?
I have seldom came across the claim, generally in a humorous or ridiculing way, that Botany is "not a real science".
My problem
While I personally reject this claim, at least in the context of plant ...
2
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2answers
106 views
How/Why is the explanation/prediction of physical phenomena not deductive?
Why is the explanation of the triboelectric effect or the electrostatic effect(indicative examples) not deductive?
How so we have a set of premises and from them follows the conclusion which is what ...
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0answers
63 views
Axiomatic system and symbolic, formal, mathematical language
Is there any need for axiomatic systems to be in a symbolic, formal, mathematical language?
Equivalently is there any prohibition of axioms in axiomatic systems being in natural language?
In other ...
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38 views
Methodological universalities in Physics
Is there any methodological characteristic universal in Physics?
Even if some branches of Physics lose their reproducibility, their experimental testing, their deterministic predictivity isn't some ...
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0answers
329 views
Relation of reproducibility and the lack of contigencies with the scientific method
What is the relation of reproducibility and the lack of contigencies with the scientific method?
Quantum mechanics and Statistical physics/mechanics are vurnerable/suspectible to contigencies. We ...
3
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3answers
138 views
Is the idea of a causal chain physical (or even scientific)?
I am aware that the idea is venerable, going back through Lucretius to the Stoics and Epicurus, and even to Aristotle with his prime mover argument. But isn't this a pre-scientific notion? The ...
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1answer
81 views
Epistemology, Scientific Method and Formal Theory, Economics
Why is Economics considered not to apply the scientific method in its pure form, nor develop scientific theories and how so?
Trade and Government policies(For political economics/positive political ...
1
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1answer
28 views
Philosophy and ontology of tools (instruments), their design and creation (as part of philosophy of action and agency)? Meta-actions?
I am designing self-evolving and self-learning cognitive architecture (that is how the Artificial General intelligence is being implemented) with the seed intelligence approach, that is why I am using ...
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209 views
Is there anything beyond mathematical universe
If Mathematics is empirical , physical events which defies the rules of mathematics may also generate new mathematics?
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116 views
Should a scientist be credited with a discovery in the following scenario?
Let's say an evolutionary scientist hypothesizes that Neanderthals existed much further south into Africa than is thought to be the case. He is extremely confident in his hypothesis. The scientific ...
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5answers
90 views
Can nothing/nothingness really be? [closed]
I've been thinking recently about the concept of ''nothing''.It doesn't make any sense to me because there will always BE something, even if you take an ''empty'' space in the air, you will still have ...
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1answer
230 views
Are philosopher's contributions to Computer Science overlooked?
George Boole's work on Boolean logic is a basic foundational part of Computer Science, Bertrand Russell's work was influential on data types, Ludwig Wittgenstein invented truth tables, Logical ...
3
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1answer
142 views
Can a data-driven scientific method produce new knowledge?
Let us classify the state of knowledge into four simple categories: what do we know (known knowns)? What are the limitations of what we know (known unknowns)? What is our degree of certainty about ...
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3answers
226 views
Is this a good reasoning? That 3D Universe is shadow of 4D Universe [closed]
It may sound crazy but, in this 3D world there is nothing 2D, other then our shadow. Is it good to say that the shadow of 3D object is 2D, then shadow of 2D object would be 1D.
Hence this 3D universe ...
1
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1answer
135 views
Does my following hypothesis make any sense? [closed]
Only three entities exist: Everything, Nothing, and Information.
Reasoning: For any Thing to exists there must also be something else that's not that Thing, otherwise the Thing wouldn't or couldn't be ...
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0answers
77 views
The need of multiplicity of theories
I know why we may need multiplicity of theories in science. But, I am not sure why we may need it for history or why we may not need it for science. Upon this, I have a couple of questions:
1) What ...
4
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3answers
210 views
Are the conclusions we draw from science inherently more certain than those we draw from history?
When it comes to forming historical conclusions, one starts with a limited dataset (the sources available to them simply by virtue of how history has played out) with which to draw inferences from. ...
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1answer
160 views
Relationism, Substantivalism, and Simultaneity?
I've been breaking my head open lately over special relativity and its conception of spacetime's dynamical as well as kinematical features. One thing that has stuck in my head is that of whether the ...
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0answers
50 views
Philosophically, isn't this impossible to prove there's no hidden variable?
As Bell wrote "If [a hidden-variable theory] is local it will not agree with quantum mechanics, and if it agrees with quantum mechanics it will not be local"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%...
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1answer
135 views
What is a both sufficient and necessary condition for not treating people merely as a means? [closed]
What is a both sufficient and necessary condition for not treating people merely as a means?
To me the meaning of a concept is equivalent to a sufficient and necessary condition with which to ...
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4answers
143 views
Falsifiability of nutcase theories that rest upon sensible theories
My friend has a theory that invisible pink unicorns are orbiting Earth. I claim that according to Karl Popper's falsifiability criterion, this theory is not scientific as it is not falsifiable. My ...
2
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1answer
96 views
Would it be trivial to think the physical as those entities which are necessary for a maximally complete physics?
I've been studying physicalism for a presentation I'll be doing on Shelly Kagan's book Death. One of the slides is on its problems, and one of those problems is that we don't have a clear definition ...
6
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1answer
330 views
Are there two types of scientific theories (one materialistic and one mathematical)?
Until recently, I was assured, for years, that there is only one way for a theory to be "scientific" (my definition):
An hypothesis to solve a defined practical problem, which must be falsifiable;A ...
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0answers
148 views
Does cosmology determine metaphysics? [closed]
In our post-post modern dawn, I think we can do speculative metaphysics, but it will demand a kind of non-absolutist approach. Is it the case that any theory or systematic metaphysics must derive from ...
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0answers
46 views
Experts in which area can be considered relevant / authoritive to validating religious claims?
Some consider that in today's word a layperson should rest their opinion on problems of field X what the majority of experts of field X say. (RationalWiki link) Quoting this article:
When ...
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0answers
30 views
What does St.Thomas Aquinas teach about state of the univerese after renewal in Summa Theologica?
In Summa Theologica suppl.q.91, St.Thomas teaches clearly about the state of the world after its renewal. In article 5 of the same question I said above, he says plants and animals will not remain in ...
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1answer
385 views
Why was the zero not discovered long ago or in the beginning? [closed]
The rules governing the use of zero appeared for the first time in Brahmagupta's Brahmasputha Siddhanta (7th century). This work considers not only zero, but also negative numbers and the algebraic ...
2
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3answers
143 views
Why do we need repetitive demonstration to accept miracles happening?
From the highest upvoted answer on Is any aspect of the supernatural testable? What level of proof is possible for the supernatural?:
However, you are probably wasting your time on the various ...
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0answers
37 views
Did (religious) dogmatism killed causality and provoked rationalism and empiricism?
Context
Originally, the causality described by Aristotle is a concept that includes 4 causes and that aim to answer the question of "why" (Falcon, 2009). Among the 4 causes, the final or teleological ...
4
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5answers
246 views
Under what conditions would we have to accept that the supernatural has influenced the reality?
One of the most common arguments raised by the rationalists against religious faiths is that many claims made by the religious tend to be unfalsifiable. Many times we hear or read arguments in the ...
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28 views
What are the possible philosophical inspirations for the philosophical concept of “antifragility” that was defined by Taleb?
It seems to me that this is just a generalization of "hormesis" by trivially abstracting some of it's aspects but I am not very well versed in philosophy.
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62 views
Is there a philosophical theory that provides rules for the classification of the hardness of scientific/philosophical theories?
A theory that could be used to classify(or at least rate) other theories in terms of their groundedness to reality and their ability to predict stuff.
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1answer
122 views
Philosophy of physics - set theory
I'm counting this as philosophy since it doesn't (as far as my research goes) seem to be an outright physics kind of claim. More like an intersection of philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of ...
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0answers
42 views
Intentionality and teleology in scientific research
As far as I understand, phenomenology suggests that all concrete objects are investigated not as they stand (noumena) but as phenomena. This investigation depends on consciousness intentionality (...
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0answers
214 views
(Non-)Mathematical examples - towards a philosophy of mathematics-
I need your help: I'm looking for a list of interesting examples (see below) that are of high interest to philosophy of mathematics. To specify this, I need you to consider the following:
''...
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2answers
107 views
Is “too complex” evidence useless?
Is "too complex" evidence useless?
E.g. studies on social phenomena, which are really complicated. The reason they are really complicated are e.g.:
If they study people, then their cognition allows ...
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0answers
263 views
Mathematical models of dynamic algorithmic processes
This question primarily concerns dynamical or time-dependent phenomena in philosophy and to what extent such heuristic discourse features in more precise mathematical settings.
In order to model ...
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0answers
114 views
Ontology and Abstract Concepts [closed]
Can ontology study abstract concepts as an object of study in themselves supporting that concepts and ideas are and exist since someone thought of them?
Please provide references explaining how and ...
1
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2answers
154 views
Informal fallacies and their fallacious nature
What imparts to informal fallacies their fallacious nature?
I have been reading Wikipedia because of the ease of access, as well as some references listed there, like https://www.humanities.mcmaster....
2
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1answer
105 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 ...
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1answer
202 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 ...
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68 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 ...
