What is Science ?

• Science has become synonymous with reliability, validity and certainty

• It is an activity characterized by three features :

1. It is a search for understanding some aspect of reality

2. It achieves understanding by means of statements of general laws or principles derived from sensory observation and inductive reasoning

3. The laws or principles can be tested experimentally

A Brief History of Science

• Key Developments in the Scientific Revolution Copernicus (b1473 AD)-Heliocentric Universe Galileo (b1564 AD)-Work with falling bodies Newton (b1642)-Universal Laws of Gravitation Mendel (b1822)-Laws of Heredity Darwin (b1809)-Theory of Evolution

Key Thinkers in the Formulation of the Scientific Method

Francis Bacon (b1561AD)

• Pioneer in SM• Don’t accept what

the Greeks said• Investigate using

observation and experimentation

John Stuart Mill (b1806AD)

• Established three rules to guide SM :

i. The accumulation of particular observations

ii. Generalization from particular observations

iii. Repeated confirmation

William Whewell (b1794CE)

• Introduced the Hypothesis Method

• Scientist makes an educated guess (H) and then tests it against sensory observations derived from experimentation

• “reason” used in formulating H (reflects Kant)

Karl Popper (b1902)

• Distinguished between science and pseudoscience

• A scientific hypothesis must be capable of being falsified through empirical observation (eg Suzuki vs Rushton)

• Science tries to disprove proposed theories

• Scientific knowledge is never certain, only probable and open to revisions based on new evidence

Thomas Khun (b1922 C.E.)

Wrote “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”Claimed that scientists were influenced by the communities they operated out of…rationality is historically conditioned by social, political and economic factors (eg. Space Race, Nazi Science)…science is not performed in a vacuumIntroduced the notion of the “paradigm”… a worldview or mindmap for looking at the world

Thomas Kuhn continued…-Scientists often cling to theories even when the data doesn't support themScience doesn’t develop gradually as one might expect… often quantum leaps based on revolutionary ideas (usually by the young) (eg Einstein, Newton)

Kuhn continued…..

In Kuhn’s view a good scientific theory has 5 traitsi.Accurate the consequences of the theory support sensory dataii.Consistent – corresponds with data and other prevailing theories on related topicsiii.Broad Scope – should extent far beyond what it was originally designed to explainiv.Simple – brings order to confusionv.Fruitful – discloses new information about relationships

Science & Truth

• Key question:Does Science give us truth ?

• Three views on this which parallel the theories of truth

• Case Studies : The Standard Theory of Matter & Copernicus’ Model of the Solar System

The Conceptual Relativist View

• Related to the Coherence Theory of Truth and the work of Thomas Kuhn

• A true scientific theory coheres with the conceptual framework accepted by a community of scientists

• Scientists are influenced by the communities and “paradigms” they operate out of (e.g. the Space Race)

• Our theories about reality influence what we think we are seeing when we observe reality ….we cannot independently know the real world

The Instrumentalist View

• Related to the Pragmatic Theory of Truth• Scientific Theories are true if they enable us to

accurately predict what will happen ...they work !

• No one actually believed that Copernicus’ theory was an accurate description of the solar system but it explained the motion of the celestial spheres

• The scientist “invents” the scientific truth

The Realist View

• Related to the Correspondence Theory of Truth

• Scientific theories are true or false in so far as they describe what really exists

• The goal of science is to explain the world as it really is

• The scientist “discovers” the scientific truth