What is Truth?

What is truth?

Once upon a time ...

What is truth?

What is truth?

Once upon a time … (Before enlightenment)

Religion

Tradition

Enlightenment, humanism

Problem: How can we know – how can we establish knowledge created by man?

What is truth?

First attempt:

Rationalism

What is truth?

First attempt : Rationalism

Background: Religious wars

Montaigne (1533-1592):

What is truth?

Scepticism and doubt

What is truth?

René Descartes: How can we have secure knowledge?Svar: Cogito ergo sum

Metoden:” never to accept anything as true unless I recognized it to be evidently such: that is, carefully to avoid precipitation and prejudgment, and to include nothing in my conclusions unless it presented itself so clearly and distinctly to my mind that there was no occasion to doubt it. ”

What is truth?

Rationalism - ratio - thinking, reason

Result: The rationalist science

• Theories and models

• Valid knowledge that are able to calculate and predict the future

• Truth as Coherence – The internal logic of the model

• Newton’s physics as a model for all other sciences

What is truth?

Content

• Axioms – self evident

• Logic – if - then

• Theorems – logical conclusion

Models of the world: Ex. Newton’s physics

What is truth?

Empirical findings can show that things fall, not how!

Galileo: Investigating the free fall

Newton: A logical model that are able to calculate and predict the free fall

What is truth?

What is truth?

Coherence

The inner logic of the model

The model is true – not the world, (as our senses might deceive us)

What is truth?

Result – The rationalist science

Secure knowledge that are able to calculate and predict the future

Newton’s physics as model for all other sciences

What is truth?

ProblemsCoherence – the model and the world

No model is better than its axioms - ex. Economic man

Problems for some sciences ex. medicine

What is truth?

Second attempt:

Positivism

What is truth?

Ponere: Put on display, erect

”An attempt to create secure and unambiguous methods of science”

“Measure the world!”

What is truth?

BackgroundEnlightenment – a showdown with religion, romanticism, idealism and rationalism

New natural sciences and trustworthy theories of development (biology)

Enlightenments dream of a better society

What is truth?

Empirism

Knowledge about the word is created by our senses alone

Locke, Hume, Berkeley

Berkeley’s phenomenalism

Scepticism

What is truth?

Positivist scienceSome attempts to make a positivist science:

Comte, Mach, J.S. Mill.

Comte: Religious, metaphysical, positive scientistThe hierarchy of subjects: psychology, sociology, economy, biology, chemistry, physic, mathematics

What is truth?

Logical positivism

Goal: To establish secure knowledge that is able to counter dictatorships, Nazism and fascism

Positivism: The experienced – our senses

A logic for the truth of the argument

The verification principle

What is truth?

The verification principle1. Analytical sentences (cookies tastes good)

2. Synthetic sentencesa. Basic sentences (It is raining)b. logical functions of basic sentences

The truth is found by going back to the basic sentences and decide if they are true or false

What is truth?

Positivism as method

1. Researchers research facts

2. Data: measures, figures, digits, numbers

3. Data are inter-subjective, controllable

4. Reliability – “We measure the right way”

Parallel tests

Repetitive tests

5. Validity – “we measure the right thing”

What is truth?

6. Test report

7. (The relationship between) Data - theory

- Induction

- Deduction

- Explanation

- Prediction

8. Logic - mathematics

9. Truth as Correspondence

What is truth?

The critique of positivism

- strong and weak points

Strong points: Positivism as critique

Subverts myths and dogma

Critique of rationalism

What is truth?

The weak sides

1. ”The journalism problem”

2. Inner problems (verification principle)

3. “Hur mäter man vackert?”

4. Positivism as non-critical science, Positivism as normal science

What is truth?

Result – “SCIENCE”

Rationalism and positivism as scientism

- flawless methods

- Scientism – as a secular religion

What is truth?

The critique of scientism

Power: Knowledge is powerand power defines knowledge

Truth: The legitimacy and the legitimisationKnowledge and interest

Praxis: ? (What is the value of science)