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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Why is Time Cube wrong?
Time Cube was a pseudoscientific theory from a crank. It is generally believed by the scientific community that there is no meaningful theory which can be isolated from the Time Cube corpus.
In debate,...
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Why care about scientific realism?
What is the significance of the debate on scientific realism?
There is a certain tendency to link it to the question "why trust science?", but that science is to be trusted seems undisputed ...
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Does significance testing contain a logical flaw or not?
This question was sparked from a comment Conifold had made. Link to comment here: Is probabilistic modus tollens a fallacy?
He says, and I quote, “The valid form used in significance testing is: If P ...
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Early Modern Science vs Aristotelianism
Peter Thiel said in a podcast:
Early Modern Science wanted to resist the aristotelianism of the Catholic church
This confused me because I thought that aristotelianism was the precursor to science.
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Has Scientism drastically declined as a worldview in the last 100 years?
I have recently had fellow posters here question my understating that scientism is on the decline. I also have recently seen several members here assert themselves to be advocates of scientism, so I ...
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The naive, formal, and critical phases of a scientific theory
A long time ago, I read something about three stages in the development of a scientific or mathematical theory, namely the naive, the formal, and the critical phase. This appeared very natural to me, ...
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Lakatos's influence on contemporary philosophy of science
Lakatos introduced the notion of scientific research programmes, consisting of a hard core (basic assumptions of a theory) and a protective belt (auxiliary hypotheses that can be modified to protect ...
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Can Kuhn's theory outlined in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions be applied to sociology? If not, what are the implications of this for sociology
Can Kuhn's theory outlined in 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' be applied to sociology? If not, what are the implications of this for sociology?
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Is seeking truth always preferred?
I’ll start off with moral values as an example. I think it is pretty obvious that moral values are socially constructed and don’t have any sort of ontological basis to them. Nature is full of examples ...
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Positivism in search for truth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism
The notion that scientific theories must be tested experimentally is fundamental to the doctrine of positivism, which also requires that theories must always ...
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Are simulation based tests / experiments also just types of augmented hyper-reality?
Questions: Are simulation based-tests / experiments just types of augmented hyper-reality?
Background: What I mean here is that the types of tests / experiments here are simulation based so this is ...
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What criteria determines if a proposition is mathematical or empirical?
It seems that there is a distinction between mathematical vs empirical statements.
For example, consider the proposition “All even numbers greater than two are a sum of two prime numbers.” This ...
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Question about equivalence and equality [closed]
What is it that equality and equivalence have in common, and how are they distinct.
Please give detailed answer
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Are there any arguments that show the genus-species distinction does not work?
I would be grateful if someone tried to answer the question above. What are some arguments that show that genus-species relation does not correctly describe the world, that it is not a correct ...
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Order/disorder and complexity
What is the relation between order/disorder and complexity ? Sometimes I found the terms confusing and ambiguous.
And higher entropy implies low complexity, does not implies low entropy implies higher ...
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A testable hypothesis where its negation is not testable?
I am reading Popper's "Conjectures and Refutations" (2002 edition) where he writes on page 54 in the footnote:
Thus the negation of any nonsense will be nonsense, and that of a
meaningful ...
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Causation in physics
Electromagnetic radiation phenomena exhibit a temporal asymmetry: we observe radiation coherently diverging from a radiating source, such the light emitted by a star, but we do not observe radiation ...
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How to rescue modal scientific definitions from necessitarianism?
Many definitions in the sciences are modal, meaning, they deal with possibility. Let me give some examples. In physics, there is the definition of energy as the ability to do work. In chemistry, there ...
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Are there any sources linking Schopenhauerian metaphysics (will as thing-in-itself) with our contemporary understanding of physics?
I'm especially interested if there are any attempts at reconciling Schopenhauer's metaphysical will with the seeming indeterministic nature of quantum physics. Thank you.
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Does astrophysical anti-realism solve the fermi paradox?
This is called Astrophysical Antirealism, and it centers around the
idea that everything that humanity has observed in deep space is
inaccurate or a downright lie.
https://medium.com/@wjackfield/the-...
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Relative to Quine's indeterminacy of translation thesis, was it ever resolved for a person to deduce what a scientific theory states?
In science, if I want to falsify someone's theory, then before embarking on a venture to do such, I need to be able to correctly interpret what the theory states. From what I have read about Quine's ...
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Who likely to "win the race" is changing in physics?
It was "the physicist who would win the race (as opposed to the mathematicians) to making discoveries about mathematical structures relevant to our universe" However, that trend seems to be ...
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Neither Presentism nor Eternalism by Carlo Rovelli
The paper in question
Rovelli argues against both presentism and eternalism. Later he proposes third option in which the concept of "local present" is central.
The problem is I cannot ...
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Are the concepts of reductionism and first principles the same?
Are reductionism and foundationalism(first principle)the same thing, or at least highly similar even if different? The first-principles approach is the same as deducing all knowledge claims from ...
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All we know is that we know nothing? Can we know anything?
Many great philosophers doubted their knowledge. The Paradox of Induction touches on this skepticism
Skeptics say that all knowledge and scientific progress is based on inductive logic, which is ...
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Causation vs. correlation
Neither causation can say they are correlated, nor correlation can say they are causation. Am I right ? Suppose there is no correlation between A and B. Does it mean there is no causal relation ...
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On thermodynamics being fundamental?
Are there philosophers who argue that thermodynamics (where time does have a direction) is the more fundamental theory as opposed to normal Newtonian mechanics and it's extensions?
For example, I can ...
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Has any work been done applying Baysian epistemology to the "no miracles" argument for scientific realism?
Specifically, I'm very curious about whether any attempts have been made to quantify the probability that our scientific theories are, in some sense, "approaching the truth". I've read a ...
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Is there a philosophical take on how to come up with metadimensions that characterize complex systems?
In short: I am looking for a philosophical take/theory/way of finding abstract-level metadimensions of complex systems (or any "real" system in general at this stage, if that helps).
Details:...
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Is it legitimate in science to use two contradictory axiomatic systems?
For example, in Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZF), the addition of the axiom of determinacy(AD) is inconsistent with the addition of the axiom of choice(AC). Is it legitimate to adopt ZFC (ZF+AC) as ...
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Which kinds of philosophical arguments are more than subjective opinions? [closed]
"There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it" - Cicero.
Is it possible to express opinions about other opinions, without expressing oneself philosophically? For example, if I ...
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Could the universe or any event within it have occurred otherwise, even if determinism was false?
Could any event have happened differently? Even if the universe was “inherently stochastic”, does this imply that events could have occurred differently? It seems to me that even inherent randomness ...
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Is the principle of indifference invalid?
The principle of indifference (also called principle of insufficient reason) is a rule for assigning epistemic probabilities. The principle of indifference states that in the absence of any relevant ...
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If calculating the p-value post-hoc is meaningless, why is it reasonable to believe the Grimm's Law (and other laws of historical phonology) is true?
Why is it reasonable to believe that the Grimm's Law is true? How can those things be scientifically investigated?An obvious answer is that we can take an dictionary of native Gothic words and the ...
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History of the "well-substantiated" criterion for scientific theories
Wikipedia defines a scientific theory as
an explanation of an aspect of the natural world and universe that has been repeatedly tested and corroborated in accordance with the scientific method
I'm ...
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Can existence be justified as ‘better’ than non-existence?
I’m relatively new to philosophy. Been doing some soul-searching, and asked myself ‘is good empirically better than evil’. Found a thread on here, where people pointed out that science cannot really ...
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If we encounter what appears to be an advanced extraterrestrial technological device, would the claim that it was designed be falsifiable?
Suppose we go to Mars and come across what appears to be a highly advanced technological device of extraterrestrial origin. Let's call this object X. Would the claim "X was designed" be ...
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Does Intelligent Design fulfill the necessary criteria to be recognized as a scientific theory?
I am seeking a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the concept of Intelligent Design (ID) in order to determine whether it meets the essential requirements to be considered a scientific theory. I ...
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What are philosophical arguments for the position that Intelligent Design is nothing but "Creationism in disguise"?
I would like to start this question quoting one of the comments to this answer to the question Does Intelligent Design (ID) entail an infinite regress of designers, and if so, is that problematic?.
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What would happen if the universe had no global symmetries and conservation laws?
I am asking this question in this site as it involves some philosophy of physics...
I am trying to understand what would happen to the universe if it had no global symmetries (including those that ...
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Do the defenses that science has implemented against a political attack undercut the ability to evaluate teleological science questions? [closed]
A political movement attempted to subvert the teaching of evolutionary science by miming the forms of science, and calling themsleves, first "Creation Science" and then "Intelligent ...
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Does the cloning of worlds, like in Many Worlds interpretation, really give the standard interpretation of probabilities?
Copenhagen-
Suppose I ask you to bet on the outcome of 100 spin measurements. And you believe in the Copenhagen interpretation for now. The odds given by the Born rule, for each experiment, are 50:50 ...
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Do decolonialists have to attack science and modernity?
I’m a professional scientist (mathematician, actually). I’m not a philosopher.
I’ve got a lot of friends well-versed in philosophy, and they all seem to point toward modernity as a byproduct of ...
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How is causal order not assuming directionality of time?
Hans Reichenbach argues for the causality and causal chain to define a topological coordinative definition of time order. Here is an excerpt from his textbook, The Philosophy of Space and Time, Dover(...
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What did Kant mean by "pure physics"?
Early in the Prolegomena, Kant says that both pure mathematics and pure physics are examples of a priori cognition. What exactly did he mean by "pure physics"?
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Is thermodynamics science? [closed]
Areas of science are defined by what they study. Electromagnetism studies electric / magnetic forces, astronomy studies stars etc.
The thing studied by thermodynamics is entropy. What is interesting ...
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Is Benacerraf's argument circular?
I'm reading Benacerraf's What numbers could not be, where he provides the following argument against platonistic account of numbers.
The only criteria we can ask for in searching the correct account ...
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Quine-Putnam indispensability argument
If Quine-Putnam's argument is (following the SEP):
(P1) We ought to have ontological commitment to all and only the
entities that are indispensable to our best scientific theories.
(P2) Mathematical ...
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What do you call this type of logic?
What do you call a logic that is a gradient between
a gradient between two extremes
and a single point.
So, for simplicity, let’s say an upside-down triangle (▼)…
In my case, specifically, the top ...
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How is scientific realism not an example of the fallacy of the converse?
Firstly, to be clear, I'm not trying to say that science is all nonsense or not useful or anything of the sort, since that's obviously not the case. If nothing else, it's incredibly useful for making ...