Philosophers
Theories of Knowledge
Scientific Method
Thomas Kuhn
Post-Positivism
100
The philosopher credited with the doctrine of positivism. (Therefore, sometimes credited as the first philosopher of science.)
Who is Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857)?
100
The view that all concepts originate in experience, that all concepts are about or applicable to things that can be experienced, or that acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience.
What is Empiricism?
100
The process by which scientists, collectively and over time, endeavor to construct an accurate (that is, reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary) representation of the world. (http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/phy_labs/AppendixE/AppendixE.html)
What is the Scientific Method?
100
"universally recognized scientific achievements that, for a time, provide model problems and solutions for a community of researchers" (Kuhn, 1970, p. viii)
What is a scientific paradigm?
100
It is impossible to determine both the position and momentum of a subatomic particle (an electron, for example) with any real accuracy.
What is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? (Positivism: The March of Science, p. 29).
200
The British philosopher called the father of empiricism. His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature.
Who is Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)?
200
The study of knowledge and justified belief.
What is epistemology?
200
This type of reasoning is sometimes called the "from the top down" approach. In this case, we start with a general idea and work down to the more specific. It is used to test existing theories and hypotheses (general ideas) by collecting experimental observations (specific examples) that put those ideas to the test.
What is deductive reasoning? http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/dox/scientific_method.html
200
This Kuhnian stage of science does resemble the standard cumulative picture of scientific progress, on the surface at least. Kuhn describes it as ‘puzzle-solving’ (1962/1970a, 35–42). While this term suggests that this type of science is not dramatic, its main purpose is to convey the idea that like someone doing a crossword puzzle or a chess problem or a jigsaw, the puzzle-solver expects to have a reasonable chance of solving the puzzle, that his doing so will depend mainly on his own ability, and that the puzzle itself and its methods of solution will have a high degree of familiarity. A puzzle-solver is not entering completely uncharted territory. Because its puzzles and their solutions are familiar and relatively straightforward, scientists operating at this stage can expect to accumulate a growing stock of puzzle-solutions.
What is a period of "normal science"? (As defined by Kuhn) https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/#3
200
These three philosophers are often cited as significant in the development of post-positivist scientific thought.
Who are Popper, Kuhn, and Feyerabend?
300
The philosopher known for his rational, deductive approach to obtaining knowledge, with the ideal logic, the syllogism.
Who is Aristotle? (384—322 B.C.E.)
300
In Western philosophy, the view that regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge. Holding that reality itself has an inherently logical structure, the rationalist asserts that a class of truths exists that the intellect can grasp directly. Some knowledge is known 'a priori' (prior to experience).
What is rationalism?
300
Every genuine test of a scientific theory, then, is logically an attempt to refute it, and one genuine counter-instance falsifies the whole theory. In a critical sense, Popper’s theory of demarcation is based upon his perception of the logical asymmetry which holds between verification and falsification: it is logically impossible to conclusively verify a universal proposition by reference to experience, but a single counter-instance conclusively falsifies the corresponding universal law. In a word, an exception, far from ‘proving’ a rule, conclusively refutes it.
What is falsification? (Popper)
300
Data that do not fit perfectly within the current model or paradigm.
What are anomalies?
300
Feyerabend (1924 - 94) described as an "essentially _______ enterprise."
What is "anarchic"?
400
Prolific philosopher of science best known for the notion of "falsification" as a means of advancing scientific method.
Who is Karl Popper? (1902-1994)
400
A philosophical movement that arose in Vienna in the 1920s and was characterized by the view that scientific knowledge is the only kind of factual knowledge and that all traditional metaphysical doctrines are to be rejected as meaningless. This doctrine differs from earlier forms of empiricism and positivism in holding that the ultimate basis of knowledge rests upon public experimental verification or confirmation rather than upon personal experience.
What is logical positivism?
400
This type of reasoning is sometimes called the "from the bottom up" approach. When we use this type of reasoning, our specific observations and measurements may begin to show us a general pattern. This might allow us to formulate a tentative hypothesis that can be further explored, and we might finally end up making some general conclusions.
What is inductive reasoning? http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/dox/scientific_method.html
400
Kuhn thought that these factors "played an important role as determinants of change in scientists' allegiance to a theory of the world and helped determine the characteristics of the physical world being modeled. ... characteristics of the human mind, or at least of the minds of individual scientists, determine in part what will be observed."
What are psychological and sociological factors? (Maxwell & Delaney, p.19)
400
This branch of psychology research was heavily influence by the positivist view of science. It is a theory that human and animal behavior can be explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns. “Sir Karl Popper has claimed that behaviorism is misguided because it holds that conditioning occurs through repetition. According to Popper, there is no such thing as learning through repetition. To the limited extent that philosophers of science have concerned themselves with behaviorism, this attack is one of the most direct and unique in that the battleground is not over the value of mentalism/cognitivism but a bold claim that conditioning—the heart and soul of behaviorism—is fictitious.” https://symsys130.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/april-17-scientific-explanation/
What is behaviorism?
500
The author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).
Who is Thomas Kuhn? (1922–1996)
500
The philosophical study whose object is to determine the real nature of things—to determine the meaning, structure, and principles of whatever is insofar as it is. The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of existence, being and the world. Arguably, the foundation of philosophy: Aristotle calls it "first philosophy" (or sometimes just "wisdom"), and says it is the subject that deals with "first causes and the principles of things". It asks questions like: "What is the nature of reality?", "How does the world exist, and what is its origin or source of creation?", "Does the world exist outside the mind?"
What is metaphysics? https://www.britannica.com/topic/metaphysics http://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_metaphysics.html
500
A specific type of argument that has three simple steps: Every X has the characteristic Y. This thing in my hand is X. Therefore, this thing has the characteristic Y.
What is a syllogism? http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/dox/scientific_method.html
500
To accommodate changes to theory, based on addressing anomalies, necessitates a "revolutionary reorientation", a conceptual transformation that is, "decisively destructive of a previously established paradigm."
What are scientific revolutions? (Maxwell & Delaney, pp. 19-20)
500
The branch of physics relating to the very small. It results in what may appear to be some very strange conclusions about the physical world. At the scale of atoms and electrons, many of the equations of classical mechanics, which describe how things move at everyday sizes and speeds, cease to be useful. In classical mechanics, objects exist in a specific place at a specific time. However, in this type of mechanics, objects instead exist in a haze of probability; they have a certain chance of being at point A, another chance of being at point B and so on. The development of these ideas in physics contributed to the development of post-positivism.
What is quantum mechanics? (https://www.livescience.com/33816-quantum-mechanics-explanation.html)
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