Title: Chapter 7 Does Science Tell Us the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?
1Chapter 7Does Science Tell Us the Whole Truth
and Nothing but the Truth?
2Introduction
- Philosophy of Science critical analysis of
various sciences and their methodology - Scientism blind faith in the power of science
to determine all truth
3How do we come to belief?
- Charles Sanders Peirce built the foundation of
pragmatism - Abduction the method for discovering the best
scientific hypotheses for a given situation
4The Fixation of BeliefCharles Sanders Peirce
- Examines the difference between doubt and belief
- Doubt causes one to struggle for belief
- Simply asking a question does not produce a
struggle for belief - An inquiry does not need to begin with first
principles, but from something which one does not
doubt - When doubt ceases, the struggle ends and would be
without purpose if it continued
5The Fixation of BeliefCharles Sanders Peirce
- Beliefs become fixed using
- Method of tenacity
- Method of authority
- A pirori method
- Method of scientific investigation
6The Growth of Scientific Knowledge
- Science is based on laws
- Deductive-nomological model (covering law model)
an explanation of an event consists in
covering the event under some law from which
the explanation is deduced - How are conclusions validated?
7Conjectures and RefutationsKarl Popper
- The growth of scientific knowledge comes from
overthrowing theories and replacing them with
better, more satisfactory ones - Rejects the idea that science grows through
making conjectures based on theoretical laws
8Conjectures and RefutationsKarl Popper
- Stronger theories can be distinguished because
they - Contain the most empirical information
- Are logically stronger
- Can be more severely tested
- A new theory must be tested empirically
9Scientific Revolutions
- Hypothetico-deductive method involves deducing
consequences that should hold if the hypothesis
is correct and then testing it experimentally - Normal science the idea that science
accumulates truth by building on previous
theories over time - Revolutionary science scientists sometimes
reject traditional, time-honored theories in
favor of new, incompatible ones
10Scientific Revolutions
- Anomalies new events that do not fit within the
prevailing beliefs - Paradigm scientific achievement so deep and
impressive that it defines daily practice for a
community of scientists - Incommensurable describes the incompatibility
of two paradigms and the lack of ability to
determine which is more accurate
11The Structure of Scientific RevolutionsThomas S.
Kuhn
- Defines normal science as research that is based
on past scientific achievements - Paradigms are scientific achievements that
attract more adherents than others and are
open-ended enough to leave room for more
discoveries - Scientific revolutions occur when an old paradigm
is replaced with a new one - When paradigms change, there are usually a
significant shifts in the criteria for
determining the legitimacy of the problems and
solutions
12Objectivity and Science
- Prejudice is a prejudgment and should be avoided
- A bias is the perspective a person has and it
cannot be avoided but a person should be aware of
it - Standpoint theory every person has a personal,
social, cultural, and historical standpoint that
limits and makes possible what they can know
through discovering, analyzing, and critiquing
standpoints. Popular among feminists and others.
13Strong ObjectivitySandra Harding
- The recognition of the role of standpoints in
science and the production of knowledge leads to
strong objectivity - Standpoint theory
- Is not about understanding marginal lives more
objectively, but about starting research from the
location of the marginal life - Is not arguing that there is a universal
description of a womans life that is a starting
point for research
14Science and Traditional Thought
- How is scientific belief different from
traditional religious belief? - Theodicy explains why bad things happen
15Old Gods, New WorldsKwame Anthony Appiah
- Explores the relationship between his background
of traditional African belief and his
understanding of European scientific belief - To understand how irrational beliefs are
sustained, one must understand - The ritual and beliefs that support it
- Historical sources of ritual and belief
- What sustains the ritual and belief
16Old Gods, New WorldsKwame Anthony Appiah
- Rationality is an ideal because it is something
that should be reached for (truth) but that
cannot be completely realized - Traditional religious theory is like natural
science in that they both explain, predict, and
control - Religious belief explains life in terms of
personal forces, while natural science explains
it by impersonal forces (Robin Horton) - Modernity is more accommodative than traditional
cultural beliefs
17The Will to Truth
- discursive formations are what Foucault
describes as something that operates
independently of the intentions and beliefs of
individuals, such as language - What are the discursive formations of knowledge,
science, or the desire for truth?
18The Discourse on LanguageMichel Foucault
- In every society, discourse is determined by
certain procedures that are meant to avert the
powers and dangers of discourse, cope with chance
events, and avoid materiality - Discourse is determined by
- Rules of exclusion
- Opposition between reason and folly
- Will to truth or knowledge
19Truth and PowerMichel Foucault
- The political economy of truth is characterized
by truth being - Centered on scientific discourse
- Subject to economic and political demand
- Circulated widely
- Produced and transmitted under control of
political and economic apparatuses - The issue of political debate and social
confrontation
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