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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Circular logical universe versus Infinite Staircase universe
Suppose we keep asking the question of "why" to reality's laws, seeking deeper and deeper explanations of them. Examples : "why do coupling constants take these values"? "why ...
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Are questions truth-apt; what is the use of assigning questions a truth-value?
Is John black (or white)?
Yes he is black.
No he is not (black).
I don’t see how can the question be truth-apt and what use is there in assigning (or even being able to assign) a truth-value to the ...
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scientific inquiry of theory of evolution [closed]
In the context of scientific inquiry, the term prediction means "The logical consequences of a set of premises". Consider the following premises :
Athena is taller than Zeno.
Zeno is taller ...
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Proving the existence of God [duplicate]
I was wondering whether anyone has done, or attempted to do, any work, trying to prove the existence of God. If so, scary works such work be centered about, what would it do, or consist of, or what ...
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Space as being "cardinal-like"?
I was thinking about Zermelo's critique of Cantor's reasoning for the well-ordering principle, how Zermelo characterized it as an appeal to temporal intuition, whereby time itself does the well-...
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If there are theories of everything for science, are there equations of everything for math?
Some considerations:
A related question is whether math is finite, and has been asked here before. Unlike science, math does not seem to be finite. As a dear friend of mine once retorted to me, "...
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Is there a way to tell if something is science versus pseudoscience?
Is there a litmus test to know whether something is science or pseudoscience?
There are many things which is quite ambiguous like ayurveda, homeopathy, psychology, biology, etc...
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speculative deductive reasoning
Is hypothetico-deductive reasoning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetico-deductive_model and speculative deductive reasoning same ?
(speculative deductive reasoning- WE arrive at the explanans ...
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What's the difference between teleology and teleonomy?
So, Teleology is
According to the Cambridge Dictionary:
the belief that everything has a special purpose or use
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
a doctrine (as in vitalism) that ends ...
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Scientific stance on 'life from non-life, naturally'?
As far as I'm aware, almost everyone (from Dawkins to Lennox to Hovind) agrees that at some point in the past there was no life in our universe, and currently there is. Therefore life somehow arose ...
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Reasoning and Randomness
What is the relation between reasoning and randomness or more specifically finding any relation between logic and stochastic processes? Why does it work so well, I wonder. For instance, prices in ...
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If we simulate a universe just like ours, is there any experiment simulated life could do to verify it is being simulated?
Akin to Einstein's principle of equivalence where the observer cannot tell if he or she is either in free fall or being accelerated (in a small enough region of spacetime); I'm wondering the same ...
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Causation vs correlation in the context of physics
How to know whether A and B is causal or correlated? Is it correct to say that physicists have always been concerned about causation? The laws of physics are stated in terms of equations that have ...
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What is the relation between abductive reasoning and fallacy?
According to WP's article on abductive reasoning:
[A]bduction is formally equivalent to the logical fallacy of affirming the consequent [citation needed] because of multiple possible explanations for ...
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A question about quantum theory
In Nanavira's Notes on Dhamma he says:
The source of the confusion is in the contradictory idea of a moment as the smallest possible interval of time—i.e. as absolute shortness of time—, and ...
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Did it take till the likes of Lakoff and the 20th-21st century to have truly direct naturalized reasons for logic and math?
I’m finding George Lakoff and cohorts unique (but maybe that’s my lack of looking enough) in that they seem among the first to posit a direct, naturalized account of logic and mathematics, as ...
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Is it wrong to fly on holiday?
I have the impression that more and more colleagues disapprove of me flying for holidays. That made me ponder, but I'm not convinced that I'm making a moral mistake. I argue that my actions cannot be ...
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When did Occam's razor historically become a common methodological precept? [closed]
When I went to college, more than 30 years ago, as far as I can remember, nobody was talking about the use of Occam's razor in science. Reading the works of past scientists such as Einstein, ...
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Falsification of a statement
Is falsification only applicable to deductive reasoning (as opposed to inductive, abductive and speculative deductive reasoning)?
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Is finding data to fit a hypothesis unscientific? [closed]
It seems to me that many people find observations/data in order to fit the hypothesis or to prove the conclusion of their arguments. In one example, one might regard taking a set of lab data and going ...
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Carnap's Logical Syntax of Language
I don't quite understand the objective of his paper on the matter of scientific language and the application of his languages I II and corresponding syntax. I also don't understand why his and Vienna ...
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Certainty is not possible in science
So I have formulated a set of arguments to argue certainty is not possible in science. Did I make an illogical argument here or like is there anything amiss in my argument?
Opinion: Science can reach ...
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What If theory can be proved practically correct even if being contradictory to itself in theory? Can it be possible?
I mean, let's take an example of science. Is there have any theory that was contradictory in nature but proved correct in observations or practical?
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Opinion vs Fact
How do I know if a piece of infromation is a fact or an opinion?
I read that facts can be proven while opinions can't, but for example if I say: "It is hot!":
It can be proven whether I'm ...
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Platonism in modern philosophy of physics: Stephen Wolfram and Max Tegmark ideas
Recently, Stephen Wolfram wrote an interesting article about his proposed relationship between maths and physics (https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2022/03/the-physicalization-of-metamathematics-and-...
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In the nature-nurture war, what wins? Nature or nurture? [closed]
We focus on not only nature, the genetic factors of behavior, but also nurture, the environmental factors of behavior. But how can environmental factors be separate from genetic factors? Don't genetic ...
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Objectiv requirements for human rights/natural rights
Some ethical problems I've run into while writing a story set in a near future where general artificial intelligence, mind upload and radical genetic engineering are a thing.
If you could scan someone'...
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How can spirituality be reliably researched? [closed]
My questions are
1 is there a reliable method for research into spiritual activity such as an individual providing healing, or any other service?
2 is there a ‘happy medium’ pardon the pun, that’s ...
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A word that encapsulates the strongest aspects of "model" and "theory" (and perhaps "hypothesis")?
I saw What is the difference between a "model" and a "theory"?, where it says, like Wikipedia says, that a scientific theory is a well-tested and thoroughly researched explanation ...
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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 there evidence for claims that specific actions are moral due to intrinsic, objective features of those actions? [closed]
The phrase moral realism will be used to cover the idea that actions can be right or wrong, permitted or forbidden, etc. due to qualities that are internal to the objective nature of those actions. ...
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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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Does time have a changing speed?
Based on my own personal experiences and responses from other people I have questioned time is more than numbers.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that it is a fact that pleasure speeds up ...
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Can retribution be justified without free will?
Without free will, our behaviour would be no different from any other natural phenomenon, Sam Harris and other determinists claim: https://i.stack.imgur.com/DSVFq.jpg
“Compare the response to ...
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"You never know until you try"?
Is it not possible to know our preferences for sure until we try? Do we have to try eating things to know whether or not we actually dislike the foods? Where does this saying stop? Do we have to try e....
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We know Classical Mechanics is wrong. But can we also say every other theory is wrong except the Theory of Everything?
Classical Mechanics (CM) or Quantum Mechanics (QM) is technically wrong. That doesn't mean they are irrelevant or have less significance, but they are wrong regardless of how accurate they are. Can we ...
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Is it ever appropriate to say a phenomenon is unexplainable?
Scientific research involves the investigation of difficult problems, and constantly tries to explain the unknown through observations and logical reasoning.
Take a situation like finding a cure for ...
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Does causation exist?
It is often claimed that radioactivity, virtual particles popping in and out of existence, quantum mechanics, etc have no causes. That at the level of fundamental physics, causes and effects are ...
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On the connection between science and reality
My question is basically targetting various sciences that we use to understnad the real world and how we form laws in them.
For example, in physics, we first see sometthing in the real world. Let it ...
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Eastern Science and Western Science
I saw that some people trying to differentiate science into western and eastern. What are the criteria for parting them?
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On physical existence. Do virtual particles of QFT exist?
Existence is a polysemic and difficult word to define. Almost certainly numbers (and other well-defined mathematical objects) exist in a different way than a real physical object (the chair I sit in, ...
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Proper Philosophical Texts on the Philosophy of Science
I am a college freshman majoring in Philosophy and Physics. I am interested in the Philosophy of Physics, but before that, I would like to get an idea of general philosophical issues in the sciences. ...
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What is the difference between a Belief and Truth
I was interested in the definition of truth, i followed this post
What is the difference between Fact and Truth?
what I understood is that truth is anything I believe in or appears to be accurate ...
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Difference between Truth and Fact [duplicate]
I was interested in the difference between truth and fact. For me, truth is a belief that appears to be from a perspective. and a fact is an undeniable reality.
Is this way of thinking correct? How ...
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Is gravity a natural manifestation of universal egoism? [closed]
What bothers me is the possibility that egoism could be an intrinsic trait of existence in general.
So we have gravity whereby masses pull each other towards themselves.
An objection could be that ...
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What are the justifications for holding concretes to be more important than abstractions?
What are the justifications for holding concretes to be more real or more important than abstractions like ideas and thoughts?
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Paradoxes never exist in nature, so why does the grandfather's paradox make sense in physics?
Paradoxes don't exist in nature, so why does the grandfather paradox make sense in physics?
This question has no mathematical or physical answer and can only have a philosophical answer.
Seemingly ...
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Why is a child not a mere extension of their "parent(s)"?
If "reproduction" were an organism replicating and making a copy of itself, how is a child/offspring not a mere extension of the "parent(s)"? In humans, the human child/offspring ...
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When does something cease to exist?
For humans, legally speaking, someone who's "brain dead" is confirmed to have ceased to exist. But what about philosophically speaking? What makes someone who they are? If we are our bodies, ...
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Is it possible to reconcile post-structuralism with the scientific method?
Post-structuralist thought seems, to me, to be quite hard to argue with as a concept. Clearly, we understand the world through language, which both stems from culture, loading concepts with cultural ...
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