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Unit 3. The Philosophy of Science

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24 views3 pages

Unit 3. The Philosophy of Science

Ju

Uploaded by

laxarc
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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UNIT 3.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE


ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE

Science is a form of knowledge used to formulate laws governing certain types of


phenomena. In order to formulate laws and theories, we need scientific concepts
which given precise names to what is being studied.

Scientific concepts are abstract entities which allow us to identify, differentiate and
compare, with a certain amount of accuracy, the objects that make up reality and that
are studied by a specific science.

There are three types of scientific concepts:

 Classificatory concepts order and separate different kinds of entities depending


on their basic properties.
 Comparative concepts classify and order things into separate groups.
 Metric concepts are exclusive to science. They express specific properties
called quantities.

A scientific law is a way of expressing the regular, constant and invariable relationship
we observe between two phenomena or between their properties.

Laws are explanations of observable realities and can, therefore, be tested through
experimentation. They have three basic characteristics:

 Universality: all natural beings and phenomena referred to by the law, without
exception, are subject to it.
 Necessity: laws not only tell us what how things are, but also that they cannot
be any other way.
 Predictive capacity: laws can predict events that will occur in the future, using
data from the past and present.

The number of laws increases as a science progresses. Scientists group them together
according to the kind of phenomena they explain, in order to make more general
explanations. This is how scientific theories originate.

A scientific theory is a coherent body of knowledge consisting of a set of laws relating


to a wide range of observable phenomena.

Scientific theories have two main characteristics:

 They use theoretical terms, which describe entities for which no direct
experience is possible, but whose real existence is postulated.
 They cannot be tested directly through experimentation, but using the laws
that make them up.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF SCIENCES

Science has always been in constant expansion, to such an extent that today we have
to divide it into two subdivisions:
 Formal sciences are not concerned with facts, but with the relationship
between a series of symbols that have been previously established
according to specific rules.
 Experimental sciences focus on observable occurrences and the
relationships we can discover between them.

Within the experimental sciences, we also distinguish between those which are
concerned with natural reality and those which are concerned with human reality,
both in terms of the individual and society as a whole.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Learning the scientific method will help us to understand how science works. There are
two fundamental models of the scientific method: the classical and the modern.
According to the classical model, the scientific method has two phases:
·Inductive phase: General laws are establishes using objective data gathered
from a process of generalisation. This process must meet three requirements:
-It must involve a great number of observations.
-The observations must be made in a wide range of different
circumstances.
-No statements based on observation may contradict the universal law
obtained.
·Deductive phase: A universal law is chosen; it is related to a specific case; and
an explanation or prediction of a phenomenon is made.

There are some problems with the classical model of the scientific method:
·Inductive reasoning lacks necessary solidity, as it is possible to not include
observations that contradict the law.
·The first two requirements are vague: How many observations are enough?
What can be considered to be a sufficiently significant variation in
circumstances?
THE HYPOTHETICO-DEDUCTIVE METHOD

These weakness led scientists and philosophers to come up with a modern model of
the scientific method: the hypothetico-deductive method. Galileo developed the
method, which consists of the following steps:
 Posing a problem: Scientific inquiry begins when something seems to be
impossible to explain using the knowledge available.
 Gathering empirical data: The scientist gathers as much information as
he or she on the apparently inexplicable subject.
 Formulating an explanatory hypothesis: Using the information
gathered, the scientist comes up with a possible solution.
 Deducing observable consequences: The consequences of the
proposed solution are predicted.
 Experimental testing: The predicted consequences are checked against
facts in order to validate the proposed hypothesis.
The scientific laws established using this method is not considered to be absolute
truths. They are only provisional hypotheses which may be replaced at any given time
by other hypotheses that are considered to be better.

THE CRITERIA OF DEMARCATION


As science grew in prestige, other disciplines began to claim that they should be
considered scientific. Therefore, it became necessary to establish criteria for
distinguishing between what is a scientific discipline and what is not. Verificationism
and falsificationism propose two different sets of criteria:
Verificationism states that only theories that are verified through experiments can be
considered scientific. The verification of a scientific law or theory consists of proving
that what is established is true in all cases under consideration.
However, this is impossible to prove even for laws and theories that no one would
deny as being scientific. This is because an indefinite number of cases is required and
we simply cannot verify the veracity of the statement in all of them.
Falsificationism is based on the idea that, although we cannot verify or prove scientific
laws or theories indisputably, it is possible to prove that they are conclusively false
through experience.
According to falsificationism, scientific hypotheses should be able to be proven false.
This means that there should be one possible state of things in which the hypothesis is
false.
Falsificationism solves the problems which make verificationism unviable. It offers a
valid criterion for differentiating between what is science and what is not.
However, it means we have to admit that we will never know whether accepted
scientific laws and theories are really true or not. The only thing we can be sure about
is that current laws and theories are improvements on their predecessors.

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