Philosophy of Science: Empiricism
Scientific Approaches or Theories:
- Computer Simulation Theory – “We are inside a virtual reality where nothing is actually there but is instead data inside a computer. Just like we play with computers and have simulated reality games, we are being played.”
- String Theory – “Interestingly, string theory may provide closure to what is known as the free-parameter dilemma. We know that electrons, free space, and such all have fixed values, but why do they have it? If it’s a random assignment then maybe all the different possible values created Universes where these exist but that creates a whole host of issue, namely is that even science? Well, string theory eliminates this debate because free-parameters don’t exist under it. Instead, those numbers are physics based rather than Universe based and so we have just this grand space of higher dimensionality we exist in.”
- Quantum Pieces – “We are not seeing the whole quantum state then, for the wave functions interact with the others to obscure our signal. But who do we see a particular piece? Why can't we chose what collapses? How does it make the macroscopic so linear? Another is the wave function which gives a probability distribution for events happening. Some feel these must be realized one way or another and those that don’t happen here branch off from our reality and create a new one. This is known as the Many Worlds Interpretation.”
Philosophical Approach or Theories:
- Physicalism or Materialism –“the philosophical theory that matter is the only reality.”
- Mentalism – “A doctrine that mind is the true reality and that objects exist only as aspects of the mind's awareness.”
Philosophers, Scientists, Thinkers or Historical Figures:
- And those whose hearts are fixed on Reality itself deserve the title of Philosophers.(Plato, Republic, 380BC )
- Reality cannot be found except in One single source, because of the interconnection of all things with one another. ... It is a good thing to proceed in order and to establish propositions (principles). This is the way to gain ground and to progress with certainty. ... I hold that the mark of a genuine idea is that its possibility can be proved, either a priori by conceiving its cause or reason, or a posteriori when experience teaches us that it is a fact in nature. (Gottfried Leibniz, 1670)
In science, reality in its most literal context is what science is ultimately trying to find. Philosophy searches into more of the figurative aspects of reality. It looks into whether we should question reality and the life around us, when science is trying to create the most absolute and accurate depiction of what reality is and what is not. Religion is a mix of the two. It tries to depict what should be determine as our reality depending on what religion we follow and how our life should be lead as well.
Philosophy of Science: Falsification or Parsimony/Occam’s Razor
Scientific Theories:
- Consciousness Realism – “According to work done by Donald D. Hoffman (University of California), this reality that we all share is not the situation at all but an evolutionary benefit allowing us to survive. Our senses lie to us and it is our consciousness that drives our reality.”
- Logical Positivism – “Logical positivism began in Vienna and Berlin in the 1910s and 1920s and migrated to America after 1933, when many of its proponents fled Nazism. The entire post-1960 conversation about scientific realism can be viewed as a response to logical positivism.”
- Quine’s Immanent Realism – “Quine, an early critic of logical positivism, acknowledged their rejection of transcendental questions such as “Do electrons really exist (as opposed to being just useful fictions)?” Our evidence for molecules is similar to our evidence for everyday bodies, he argued; in each case we have a theory that posits an arrangement of objects that organizes our experience in a way that is simple, familiar, predictive, covering, and fecund. This is just what it is to have evidence for something.”
Philosophical Theories:
- Medieval realism – “developed out of debates over the problem of universals.[9] Universals are terms or properties that can be applied to many things, such as "red", "beauty", "five", or "dog". Realism (also known as exaggerated realism) in this context, contrasted with conceptualism and nominalism, holds that such universals really exist, independently and somehow prior to the world. “
- Platonic realism – “Realism regarding the existence of universals or abstract objects. As universals were considered by Plato to be ideal forms, this stance is confusingly also called Platonic idealism.”
Philosophers:
- Proponents of moderate realism from medieval realism included Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, and Duns Scotus
Science believes in not relying on possibility of something being the truth and believing it, they believe in testing theories that are already created with proof to make a completely accurate answer. Philosophy uses the debate of anti-realism to realism that to determine what we should second guess in life and what is definite. Religion is based on realism. It is the choice to believe in something without having all the proof because it answers some of the big questions.
Philosophy of Science: Demarcation Problem
Science Theories or Approaches:
- Diamond Approach - “The scientific approach is not doubt or skepticism; it is inquiry, it is questioning and challenging. Doubt or skepticism is a negative energy, a distorted expression of our Being, while curiosity and inquiry is a positive energy, an expression of the optimizing force.”
- Denialism – “When someone does not believe the truth because it may be more complicated or hard to believe than a lie.”
- Skeptical Movement – “Scientific skepticism involves the application of skeptical philosophy, critical-thinking skills, and knowledge of science and its methods to empirical claims, while remaining agnostic or neutral to non-empirical claims (except those that directly impact the practice of science).”
Philosophical Approachs or Theories:
-Methodic Doubt – “Methodic doubt, in Cartesian philosophy, a way of searching for certainty by systematically though tentatively doubting everything.” - Cartesian Doubt – “Cartesian doubt is a systematic process of being skeptical about (or doubting) the truth of one's beliefs, which has become a characteristic method in philosophy. Additionally, Descartes' method has been seen by many as the root of the modern scientific method.”
Philosopher or Historical Figures: - In the first half of the 17th century, the French Rationalist René Descartes used methodic doubt to reach certain knowledge of self-existence in the act of thinking, expressed in the indubitable proposition cogito, ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”). - Karl Popper described the demarcation problem as the “key to most of the fundamental problems in the philosophy of science” (Popper 1962, 42). He rejected verifiability as a criterion for a scientific theory or hypothesis to be scientific, rather than pseudoscientific or metaphysical.
Science and philosophy act very similarly in their approaches when it comes to skepticism and scientific doubt because in science, you need to have a mind of scientific doubt until you can be sure that your research and resolution are credible and 100% accurate. Skepticism in philosophy is necessary as well because we should always look to find the big answers and everyone’s answers are so varied that even if a vast majority votes in favour of one answer, there should always be opposing skeptics to be able to either derail the answer that does not have enough evidence to back it or to have them proving wrong for complete answer validation. Skeptics when it comes to religion are a given. Like me, there are some that believe in a certain faith but also are skeptical of such large questions being answered so easily, especially with new scientific studies like evolution that make more sense than then a story in the bible.
Philosophy of Science: Epistemology
Scientific Approaches or Theories:
- The Scientific Method – “The scientific method is very simple - a basic "crap detector" if you will. We have all used it since infancy. It is simply a description of the process of learning that involves observation, hypothesis, testing, and revising.1 When we learn something new about our environment, we first observe or sense something through our senses. We then propose a hypothesis in our mind that explains this observation. A hypothesis makes certain assumptions or predictions about the future. If these predictions hold true, the hypothesis is strengthened in its usefulness as a predictive tool, but it can never be absolutely confirmed since we remain subjective creatures (subject to our senses and to indirect interpretations of what they are telling us).
- Evolution – “The Theory of Evolution is believed by many to be "true" - especially by most of today’s scientists. Many others, even among evolutionists, believe in the "truth" of God or in an original designer. Still others believe in the “truth†of original creation where the basic ideas of evolution are completely excluded. But how, exactly, do different people come to their own personal understanding of what is true and was is not?”
- The Ideological Corruption of Science – “As ideological encroachment corrupts scientific institutions; one might wonder why more scientists aren’t defending the hard sciences from this intrusion. The answer is that many academics are afraid, and for good reason. They are hesitant to disagree with scientific leadership groups, and they see what has happened to scientists who do.”
Philosophical Theories:
- Correspondence Theory – “We return to the principal question, “What is truth?” Truth is presumably what valid reasoning preserves. It is the goal of scientific inquiry, historical research, and business audits. We understand much of what a sentence means by understanding the conditions under which what it expresses is true. Yet the exact nature of truth itself is not wholly revealed by these remarks.”
- Pragmatic Theory – “A Pragmatic Theory of Truth holds (roughly) that a proposition is true if it is useful to believe. It may be useful for someone to believe a proposition but also useful for someone else to disbelieve it. For example, Freud said that many people, in order to avoid despair, need to believe there is a god who keeps a watchful eye on everyone. According to one version of the Pragmatic Theory, that proposition is true. However, it may not be useful for other persons to believe that same proposition. They would be crushed if they believed that there is a god who keeps a watchful eye on everyone. Thus, by symmetry of argument, that proposition is false. In this way, the Pragmatic theory leads to a violation of the law of non-contradiction, say its critics.”
Philosophers:
- Historically, the most popular theory of truth was the Correspondence Theory. First proposed in a vague form by Plato and by Aristotle in his Metaphysics, this realist theory says truth is what propositions have by corresponding to a way the world is. The theory says that a proposition is true provided there exists a fact corresponding to it. In other words, for any proposition p, p is true if and only if p corresponds to a fact.
- Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosophy researcher who had multiple written works, including On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.
Science studies are always searching for the truth and with the truth they use research to solidify their reasoning. Philosophy uses ideological misconceptions through the fact that even in this course, we discussed how preconceived perceptions of something can create a prejudice and that affects our belief of the truth. Religion used some ideological preconceptions we have about life and makes them into their version of the truth.