PHILOSOPHICAL

• Science


  The state or fact of knowing; knowledge or cognizance of something specified or implied
• Science


  A branch or study which is concerned either with a connected body of demonstrated truths or with observed facts systematically classified and more or less colligated by being brought under general laws and which include trustworthy methods for the discovery of new truth within its own domain
• Science


  An ordered body of knowledge or a search for explanations to natural objects and phenomena; Such knowledge is derived from the systematic study of nature and behaviour of materials of the physical universe based on observations, experimentations, measurements and the formation of laws to describe these facts
• Science


  Devotion of man to research or to the attainment of the kind of knowledge which establishes general laws governing a number of particular isolated facts
• Philosophy of science


  Concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science
• Philosophy of science has historically been met with mixed response from the scientific community
• Philosophy of particular sciences

  • Philosophy of Biology
  • Philosophy of Chemistry
  • Philosophy of Mathematics
  • Philosophy of Physics
  • Philosophy of psychology
• Philosophy of Biology


  Deals with issues that focus on epistemology, metaphysics and ethics contained in the biological and biomedical sciences
• Philosophy of Chemistry


  Concerned with the methodology and the underlying assumptions of the science of Chemistry
• Philosophy of Mathematics


  Focuses on the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics
• Philosophy of Physics


  The study of diverse concerns which include the fundamental aspects of physics, philosophical questions concerning modern physics, the study and interaction of matter and energy
• Philosophy of psychology


  Deals with issues relating to theoretical foundations of modern psychology
• Methods for studying philosophical science

  • The pedestrian method
  • The Critical method
  • The Original Philosophical method
• The pedestrian method


  Discusses topics in science
• The Critical method


  Examining the fundamental assumptions and presuppositions, competing theories, method of inquiry and relation to other fields of study
• The Original Philosophical method

  Injecting a priori metaphysical, epistemological or ethical notions into science to uplift its empirical content to the standard of being adjudged the universal truth
• Studying the philosophical aspect of science will enable one to be accustomed with the development in science over the years and stimulate an active interest in the discipline
• Of the three cardinal aims of science, explanation is of the greatest. Scientific explanation aims at understanding science
• The three cardinal aims of science are prediction, control, and explanation
• Scientific explanation


  Aims at understanding science
• Philosophical context of scientific explanation

  • Most people and scientists intuitively believe that one of the goals of science is to explain phenomena in the world
  • Some people even believe that explanation is the main goal of science
  • Scientific realists use the "inference of best explanation" (IBE) principle to solve the strong under-determination problem and prove that science can create true knowledge even about non-observable (non-empirical) entities
• Scientific explanation


  1. Scientists use scientific theories to explain events that occur regularly or have already occurred

  2. Philosophers have investigated the criteria by which a scientific theory can be said to have successfully explained a phenomenon

  3. Philosophers have investigated what gives a scientific theory credibility or explanatory power
• Deductive-Nomological (D-N) Model


  • Proposed by Carl G. Hempel and Paul Oppenheim in 1948
  • Says that a scientific explanation succeeds by subsuming a phenomenon under a general law
  • Describes what kind of things scientists claim to have an explanation for, without asking whether such things are capable of providing "true understanding"
• Shortcomings of the D-N Account

  • Inability to account for judgments of explanatory relevance
  • Insufficient attention to the explanatory role of causal relations
  • Requirement that every explanation cite a law, and that (except in probabilistic explanation) the law or laws be strong enough to entail, given appropriate boundary conditions, the explanandum
• Inductive-Statistical (IS) Model


  • IS explanation is a law-involving argument giving good reason to expect that the explanandum event occurred
  • Whereas a D-N explanation is a deductive argument entailing the explanandum, an IS explanation is an inductive argument conferring high probability on the explanandum
• Shortcomings of the IS Account

  • There is too much to ask that explanations confer high probability on their explananda
  • A second objection focuses on the requirement of maximal specificity
• Statistical Relevance Model


  • Statistical relevance is presented as an objective relation, that is, a relation holding independently of the explainer's background knowledge or other context
  • Statistical relevance is a comparative concept
• Empirical verification


  • Science relies on evidence to validate its theories and models, and the predictions implied by those theories and models should be in agreement with observation
  • Observations should be repeatable
  • Predictions should be specific and scientists should be able to describe a possible observation that would falsify a theory or a model that implies the prediction
• Induction


  Inductive reasoning maintains that if a situation holds in all observed cases, then the situation holds in all cases
• Newton's Third Law of Motion: To every action, there is equal and opposite forces
• After completing a series of experiments that support the Third Law, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary


  One is justified to imply that the Law will hold in all cases
• Objectivity of observations in science

  • Measurements must be as objective as possible
  • Science uses measuring devices such as spectrometers, voltmeters, interferometers, thermocouples, counters, and computers to reduce human involvement and increase accuracy and reliability
  • The less the human involvement in the measuring process, the more accurate and reliable the scientific data is
  • Experimenters regress and cognitive/social biases of people interpreting observations can affect the objectivity of observations