Questions tagged [philosophy-of-science]
for applied philosophical questions about the study of science, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the scientific method
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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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The Unreasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics in most sciences
In 1960, the physicist Eugene Wigner wrote the article "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences" explaining how unexpected it is that mathematical formalism can ...
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Is the idea that "Everything is energy" even coherent?
There are many New Age websites claiming Everything is energy. Does this even make sense in philosophy of physics and metaphysics?
How can something be "made out of energy"? As far as I ...
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What is the difference between Fact and Truth?
I'm curious about the difference between Fact and Truth. I was searching on the internet if I could find it. But still I'm confused about the exact meaning.
I first read the forum discussion here
Fact ...
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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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Are philosophy and science mergeable today?
In the past, both Philosophy and Science were one. However, because of the vastness of Science, it was cut off. I am inclined to go along the same line of thinking, but, is there a way to merge both ...
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Is there anything that is totally random?
When I say totally random, I mean absolutely random, not pseudorandom.
If I want to say "totally random" numbers such as 1,26,17,4,1 and 27, although I see them to be totally random, they aren't. ...
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What is the relationship between philosophy and science?
While philosophy and science as held as separate disciplines (and often taught in completely different colleges within a university [i.e. College of Liberal Arts vs. College of Science]), it is ...
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Philosophical assumptions underlying science
I am a medical student and have been interested lately in the foundations of the scientific research method I have been taught.
I've read that there is in fact no such thing as a unique scientific ...
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Life and Death as one and the same?
Life-death, heavy–light, hot–cold and slow–fast are some of the most conventionalized pairs along the semantic dimensions of existence, weight, temperature and speed that require contextual motivation ...
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How can the physical world be an abstract mathematical structure a la Tegmark?
This is Tegmark's short formulation of the "mathematical universe" (paraphrased by detractors as "reality made of math"), and he goes out of his way to stress that he means the "is" literally:"Whereas ...
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Have the exact sciences tried to obtain their legitimacy from "outside" the human being?
I'm not really specialized in the history of science. But it seems for me that as the time passed, the exact sciences tried to do that. For example: The second is measured in relation to the spinning ...
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How can an uneducated but rational person differentiate between science and religion? [closed]
I recently found myself unable to respond to the statement "But the big bang theory is just another creation myth!" during a science vs. religion argument. I found it very difficult to explain the ...
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What should philosophers know about math and natural sciences?
My question is whether a lack of knowledge about formal mathematics or theoretical science in general would have an impact on a philosopher's ability to think and make judgments.
Why should a ...
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In what sense is atheism scientific?
I have been reading a bit of Dawkins and the like and they all seem to hold a very strong viewpoint on atheism and its associated ideology. I have not found a direct citation for this but he ...
user2683
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If everything is theory laden, how can one argue against climate change deniers?
Per Quine's results from "Two Dogmas of Empiricism", the Duhem-Quine thesis, and later results such as those of Kuhn and Feyerabend, all empirical observations are theory laden. Even widely accepted ...
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Why have those scientists who rejected or opposed philosophy, still succeeded?
Preface: I know nothing about physics, and little about philosophy.
This Scientific American article of 2015 May 8, this question, and this blog post of 2009 Nov 11 by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci ...
user8572
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Have any philosophers applied the concept of "underdetermination" to non-scientific contexts?
Most resources I've found on underdetermination approach the subject within the context of science. That's definitely a fascinating area of study, but I'd like to explore ways of applying ...
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What differentiates the scientific method from other methods
From the controversy in this question, I would like to know what differentiates "the scientific method" from other method. I'm asking for differentiation, rather than a definition, because ...
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Is science just a more refined and effective method of philosophy?
I'm a word geek and it came upon me to look up the word philosophy tonight:
philosophy - the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.
The thing that ...
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Is Reality an intersection of Incompatible Ontologies?
Empiricists do not ask questions about the ontological status of mathematical or logical structures. Idealists don't explain how Ideas are developed, or how technological advancement in general takes ...
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Does quantum mechanics disprove determinism?
I've heard this pop up in a discussion with my physicist/engineer roommates, but didn't care to ask at the time. Now I'm mighty curious about it. Wikipedia doesn't really seem to say much on this ...
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Is there an alternative to the scientific method?
Intro
The scientific method is a key process of how we acquire knowledge and may shape our understanding of the world. If I am not mistaken, this method has been defined several times during our ...
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Is Mathematics considered a science?
Science, generally is analyzing information gathered from observing phenomena, and coming up with theories to try and explain the phenomena. Then, attempting to predict a new phenomenon before it ...
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Is geometry mathematical or empirical?
Is Euclidean geometry a mathematical theory, or is it a theory of empirical science?
If taking it to be a mathematical theory would it be due to having alternative geometries? If so, is it in some ...
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Is scientific knowledge personal or general?
This question was considered off topic in "History of science and mathematics". According to a comment by Alexandre Eremenko it belonged to philosophy.stackexchange.com. I don't understand ...
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Looking for a book to compliment Zammito and Mohanty in understanding the ethos of post positivistic realism
There are two books which I consider to be indispensable to an understanding of
contemporary western culture’s post-truth/alternative facts (scientific and cultural post modernism/structuralism/...
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Philosophy - Does the block universe theory of time mean that life will repeat after death?
I have suffered severe anxiety, sadness, regret, and depression since I was 13, I had 2 trapped-feeling panic attacks when I was 13 I am now 17 and fighting off frequent urges to have a trapped-...
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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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Is Philosophy the source of all other fields of study?
[CONTEXT]
I started a self-education plan to learn computer science from foundations. then, I found my self in need to learn electrical engineering, after that I understant that I should learn Physics ...
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What basis do we have for certainty in current scientific theories?
Given there is much past scientific belief that we now know NOT to be true, what basis do we have for the seemingly increasing certainty in our scientific beliefs held today being true?
On the one ...
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Why is scientism philosophically wrong?
I think a combination of science and philosophy alone leads to closer to truth.
Why is it that it is wrong to think that science alone leads to truth? Isn't empirical truth the only one we can be ...
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Have professional philosophers contributed to other fields in the last 20 years?
Here are some quotes from Scott Aaronson's interview:
progress in math and science — think of natural selection, Godel’s and Turing’s theorems, relativity and quantum mechanics — has repeatedly ...
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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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Does True Randomness actually exist? [duplicate]
I tend to think of randomness as a lack of complete information when it comes to knowing something. If we look at the history of probability theory it centers on a lack of knowing the exact outcome of ...
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Dawkins on God: What are the strongest counters to his argument?
But the candidate solutions to the riddle of improbability are not, as is falsely implied, design and chance. They are design and natural selection. Chance is not a solution, given the high levels of ...
user62907
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Are humans becoming more hive-like? Does this have philosophical implications?
Have any philosophers taken up human hive-like behaviour and its implications?
EO Wilson and others have outlined eusociality, a mode of group selection acting in addition to selection at the ...
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Is there a boundary on 'physical'?
I have asserted many times here that physicalism as degraded into an undecidable question, and I would like to see how strong my understanding is.
It seems to me that whenever we approach the ...
user9166
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Can emotions be logical? And can logic and emotion co-exist?
Logic and emotion tend to be considered as polar opposites. When someone is empathetic or generally emotional, they are not claimed to be logical. The parts of the brain responsible for logic and ...
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What are the foundations of philosophy?
I'm a student majoring in mathematics. I've taken a course in mathematical logic and a course in set theory. My problem is basically that I'm always finding philosophical concepts, for example syntax, ...
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Is Science about Truth or Adequate Models?
Is it the general view amongst philosophers of science that science isn't about truth but rather adequately predictive models and therefore it doesn't make sense to speak of a scientific theory as ...
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What is the philosophy behind the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics?
Perhaps it is a stereotype, but I assumed that most physicists are empirical realists (external reality affects our senses, and science infers a representation of it from sensory data). At the same ...
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Can philosophy overcome "the two cultures" divide?
Snow noted a growing divide between "the two cultures" in Western society, scientists and "literary intellectuals", who became increasingly self-absorbed and incomprehensible to each other. One of ...
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Is naturalism falsifiable?
From Wikipedia:
In philosophy, naturalism is the idea or belief that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe.[1]
Naturalism is not so much a special ...
user48437
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How does Quine answer the metaphysician's charge that scientism is self-refuting?
General scientism seems to hold that due to the predictive powers of our scientific methods, such methods are preferred to other methods of knowledge, such as metaphysics (radical scientism claiming ...
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Can belief in science be considered a form of theism?
Based on the problem of induction, nobody can assert with absolute certainty that the laws of science (i.e. physics, chemistry, etc,...) will hold all the time, in every part of the universe. ...
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Any argument against determinism?
I'm a very logical person. I like mathematics, software engineering, physics... everything in that area. Also I'm an anti-theist.
My understanding of the universe:
If you would take every atom (as in ...
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What is the meaning of "There are questions that science can't answer"?
I've recently come across several statements to the effect "there are questions science can't answer", mostly from proponents of religion and mysticism, but also from scientists and secular ...
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Can we know the fundamental nature of space and time?
Can you please point me to an argument by a notable contemporary philosopher arguing why we may know the fundamental (metaphysical) nature of space and time?
In a recent answer to a question I wrote ...
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To what extent are observations theory laden?
I understand the concept of how all observations are theory laden and how it works as a critique of the positivist program.
From this link:
Theory-ladenness of observation holds that everything ...
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