History & Philosophy of Science STF3042

LU1: The History of Science What is science?

The Importance of H & P of Science

The people who are involved in the activities of the discipline of History & Philosophy of Science are philosophers. Some philosophers are inclined to the history of science, while some engaging pure philosophy in their academic work. Philosophers are primarily interested in the conceptual clarification of a subject or a substance. Example, they answer such questions as: What is water?; What is an animal? What is scientific method?; What is science and nonscience? Is this theory correct or false?

The Importance of H & P of Science

H&P of Science in normative (relating to an ideal standard or model) in that they want to know things as follows: Does the method used by the scientist in his study give a valid result? Is it proper or justified for the scientist to infer that conclusion when this particular method was used in carrying out his investigation? Through these questions and arguments that spanned through the ages, that scientific theories and methods are validated, reconstructed or rejected .

The Importance of H & P of Science

Scientists benefit from the work of philosophers in that they do not have to think for themselves the proper method of carrying out scientific investigation. Philosophers, therefore, are the people who study things that ordinary scientists think they are not important Philosophers also discuss the meaning of many terms whose meaning other people take for granted. For example: What is an explanation? What is the difference between explanation and description? Is the explanation a proper one?

History & Philosophy of Science

A Unified Discipline While it may seem to be an umbrella term, people in the branch of HPS consider this fusion of history of science with philosophy of science to be perfectly natural. Others see it as a historical anachronism, resulting from the misguided approach of the logical positivists. The origin of this hybrid approach is reflected in the career of Thomas Kuhn. His first permanent job was at the University of California, Berkeley At the philosophy department, but he also taught courses from the history department.

History & Philosophy of Science

A Unified Discipline When he was promoted to full professor in the history department only, Kuhn was offended at the philosophers' rejection because "I sure as hell wanted to be there, and it was my philosophy students who were working with me, not on philosophy but on history, were nevertheless my more important students". "History of science without philosophy of science is blind ... philosophy of science without history of science is empty ---- Norwood Russell Hanson

Teaching of HPS in Universities

Universities with departments of History and Philosophy of Science
Indiana University University of Cambridge University of Melbourne University of Paris X: Nanterre University of Notre Dame University of Pittsburgh University of Sydney University of Toronto University of Washington Florida State University University College, London University of Athens, Greece University of Lisbon, Lisbon New University of Lisbon, Lisbon University of Coimbra, Coimbra University of Bern, Switzerland

Teaching of HPS in Universities

Examples of Universities that offer degrees in HPS through other departments:
The Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds (formerly Division of HPS) exists within the University of Leeds philosophy department. The University of New South Wales has a unit for HPS within their Department of History and Philosophy (but formerly had a separate department of HPS, sometimes known as STS). The University of Malaya offers undergraduate and graduate programs in HPS through the Department of Science and Technology Studies. Arizona State University offers undergraduate and graduate programs in HPS through the Center for Biology and Society in the School of Life Sciences.

Teaching of HPS in Universities

Universities offering inter-departmental programs in HPS:
University of Chicago California Institute of Technology Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico University of California, Berkeley. Stanford University. Western Michigan University The University of Texas at Austin. McGill University, Canada. Duke University

What is Science?
Science is an invention, a relatively recent invention.
There was a time in worlds history when there was nothing that we could associate with the word science.

Definitions of Science
Science is the attempt to reach demonstrable, replicable, conclusions about the natural world. Social science is the corresponding attempt to reach demonstrable conclusions about the social or human world. Science is the concerted effort by very real human beings to understand the history of the natural world and how the natural world works. The systematic and organized inquiry into the natural world and its phenomena. Science is about gaining a deeper and often useful understanding of the world.
Multicultural History of Science page at Vanderbilt University.

Definitions of Science
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/1122sciencedefns.html

The systematic observation of natural events and conditions in order to discover facts about them and to formulate laws and principles based on these facts. The organized body of knowledge that is derived from such observations and that can be verified or tested by further investigation. Any specific branch of this general body of knowledge, such as biology, physics, geology, or astronomy.
Academic Press Dictionary of Science & Technology

Definitions of Science
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/1122sciencedefns.html

Science is an intellectual activity carried on by humans that is designed to discover information about the natural world in which humans live and to discover the ways in which this information can be organized into meaningful patterns. A primary aim of science is to collect facts (data). An ultimate purpose of science is to discern the order that exists between and amongst the various facts.
Dr. Sheldon Gottlieb in a lecture series at the University of South Alabama

Emergence of Science Disciplines

Not until the 17th century did what we would recognize as modern physics emerge (via Newton and his discoveries) as a separate discipline. What we think of as biology didnt exist until 1859 (when it emerged with the publication of Darwins Origin of the Species).

Emergence of Science Disciplines

Origin of Science Disciplines
All science discipline grew from philosophical roots. (From the concerns of the ancient Greek philosophers and primarily from the concerns of Aristotle). Physics and biology are descendants of the philosophical sub-discipline known as metaphysics roughly, the study of what there is: what fundamental kinds and properties there are and how they relate.

Mind maps of Philosophy of Science

Ontology
Branch of metaphysics. The study of the categories of things that exist or may exist in some domain and their relationships

Metaphysics
The nature of substance, that is, what is the universe really made of. Branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world.

Other branches of Philosophy

Ethics

Natural philosophy

Empirical activity
How to get knowledge?
Observation, experience, experiment.

Philosophy
Epistemology
Epistemology is the study of knowledge and justification. Concerned with such questions as, is knowledge of anything really possible, is our knowledge certain, how do we get our knowledge, what things can we have knowledge about, what exactly is knowledge. Study the nature and scope of knowledge How do we know what we know.

Philosophy of Science
whether scientific knowledge can be said to be certain, how we obtain it, can science really explain everything, does causation really exist, can every event in the universe be described in terms of physics

Scientific questions Scientific Method

18th Century Empirical activity => Science to distinguish it from philosophy

Knowledge + SM = Science

The Demarcation Problem and Falsificationism

Popper View of Science

The Problem of Demarcation Popper 1902-1994 Karl Popper is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century According to Popper:
The central problem in the philosophy of science is that of demarcation i.e., of distinguishing between science and what he terms non-science

Examples of non-science: logic, metaphysics, psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology.

Popper View of Science

The demarcation problem (or boundary problem) in the philosophy of science is about how and where to draw the lines around science, partly on the boundaries are commonly drawn between science and nonscience. Paul Feyerabend 1924-1994 did not agree with differentiating between science and nonscience. Dismiss it as not important.

Induction as a means of forming a theory

Before Popper, the criteria for differentiating science and non-science is that Science uses inductive methodology In induction (Francis Bacon (15611626) /Newton) pure observations (theory-free) are superior (no biasness) David Hume uses was said to use induction in research when he published The Problem of Induction, in which he argued that the unobserved resembles the observed meaning if we make measurements of samples it can extrapolated to a wider scope of the unmeasured. For Popper observations must be selective and theoryladen No single method such as induction, which functions as the only route to scientific theory

Poppers view on Science

The central problem in the philosophy of science is that of demarcation Argues that induction is never actually used by the scientist Insisting that all observation is selective and theory-ladenthere are no pure or theoryfree observations

Poppers view on Science

Popper supports Hume's critique of induction, but not Hume's view on skepticism Rejects the view that it is the characteristic method of scientific investigation and inference. induction is never actually used by the scientist.

Poppers view on Science

What is demarcation according to Popper? Replace induction with falsifiability Hence, a theory is scientific only if it is refutable by a conceivable event. Every genuine test of a scientific theory, then, is logically an attempt to refute or to falsify one genuine counter-instance falsifies the whole theory No single method such as induction, functions as the route to scientific theory However, in practice, a single conflicting or counterinstance is never sufficient methodologically to falsify a theory

Implication of using falsifiability to test a theory

Logically speaking, a scientific law is conclusively falsifiable although it is not conclusively verifiable it is logically impossible to conclusively verify a universal proposition by reference to experience In contrast a single counter-instance conclusively falsifies the corresponding universal law. Every genuine scientific theory then, in Popper's view, is prohibitive, in the sense that it forbids, by implication, particular events or occurrences. As such it can be tested and falsified, but never logically verified.

Implication of using falsifiability to test a theory

The fact that a theory has withstood the most rigorous testing, for however long a period of time, does not mean that it has been verified; Rather we should recognise that such a theory has received a high measure of corroboration It may be provisionally retained as the best available theory until it is finally falsified (if indeed it is ever falsified), and/or is superseded by a better theory.

Testing a theory
In Testing a theory, truth is not the issue for Popper. Accordingly, his solution to the demarcation problem doesnt make being true a criterion for being science.
Theories that are true may be falsifiable.

But, equally, theories that are false may be falsifiable as well.

Popper solution to Demarcation problem:
Theories not falsifiable by any conceivable event are not scientific. Every good scientific theory is a prohibition--it denies that certain things may happen.

Arthur Stanley Eddington

(By Ian H Hutchinson, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, December 2002) Eddington was Born on 28 Dec 1882 (Britain) The argument for exemption from army service in world war I, with the proposal that Eddington undertake an expedition to observe the total eclipse in May of the following year to test Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. The board's decision was to grant a twelve months extension for him to do so.

Prediction of the theory

So, how did Eddington demonstrate that Einstein was right? One of the things that General Relativity predicts is that light will bend around a massive object (such as the Sun). Newtonian gravity also predicts this. However, General Relativity predicts that light will bend twice as much as the value predicted by Newtonian gravity. So, we have something that can be tested. If we can measure how much light bends around the Sun, then the value obtained will show which prediction was right: Einsteins or Newtons. An experiment could be devised to test this.

Prediction of the theory

The experiment
There are plenty of light sources that can be used to see how much light bends when passing by a massive object; there are millions of stars that we can see in the night sky. The problem is the night sky bit of that last sentence. We see the stars at night when the Sun isnt there. How can we check if the Sun is bending starlight when the Sun is too bright to allow the stars to be seen?

The experiment
Simple: run the experiment during a total eclipse. So, Eddington and his colleagues performed some calculations to find a suitable location to observe the next solar eclipse, and determined which stars would be close to the Sun during the eclipse. They calculated that the tiny island of Prncipe off the coast of West Africa would be an excellent place from which to observe and photograph the next solar eclipse on 29 May 1919. Eddington himself would go to Prncipe and he also dispatched one team to Sobral in Brazil

The experiment
Eddington lead the expedition to the island of Principe off the coast of Africa to observe the eclipse. On the day, 29 May 1919, it rained early, threatening to hand Eddington his second eclipse wash-out; but the sun appeared just in time, Eddington says `... I did not see the eclipse, being too busy changing plates ...' They got a good enough photograph to make the measurements and obtained a result agreeing with Einstein's theory.

Picture During Eclipse

Printed picture

Negatives/film

Superimpose

Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status. Pseudoscience is often characterized by the use of vague, exaggerated or unprovable claims, an over-reliance on confirmation rather than rigorous attempts at refutation, a lack of openness to evaluation by other experts, and a general absence of systematic processes to rationally develop theories. Differentiating science from pseudoscience has practical implications in the case of health care, expert testimony, environmental policies, and science education

Science Vs Pseudoscience
Systematised as scientific definition Treated with scientific method Presented as science and looks as science Superstitions Pseudoscience Fringe Science Protoscience

Mainstream science

The distance between pseudoscience and science is filled with protoscience and fringe science. A protoscience is a new science trying to establish its legitimacy. Protoscience is distinguished from pseudoscience by its standard practices of good science, such as a willingness to be disproven by new evidence, or to be replaced by a more predictive theory. Some protosciences go on to become an accepted part of mainstream science Fringe science, which is considered highly speculative or even strongly refuted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience