SASSTalk03/11/2009

Whatisphilosophy? FromancientGreek“philein”=tolove&“sophia”=wisdom. ItisthestudyofgeneralproblemsconcerninghumanexistenceusingacriLcalsystemaLcapproachandreasonedargument.

 AncientphilosophystartedbeforeSocratesanddevelopedallthewaytoPlatoandAristotle.

Theoriginofphilosophy

“TheGreeksgaveitthenameofPhilosophy;correctlytranslatedtoitsoriginalmeaning,thistermisanothernameforuniversalscience,thescienceofeverythingabouttheworld,oftheuniquetotalitythatembracesallthatis”‐EdmundHusserlfrom“ThecrisisofEuropeansciencesandtranscendentalphenomenology”

TheseparaLonbetweenscienceandphilosophy

 ThedisLncLonbetweenscienceandphilosophydidnotappearunLlKantinthelate18thcentury.

 KantdisLnguishedbetweentwolevelsofjudgement: DeterminisLcjudgement:properreasoningofscienceandtheempiricalapproachtotruth.

 ReflecLvejudgement:theaprioriknowledgeoftheworld,anontologicaltruththatcanbeconceivedbutnotproven.

 Scienceandphilosophyhaveonecommongoalthough,whichisseekingforthemethodtouseintheanalysisofcausesandeffects.

 IwillanalysehowthesemethodsshapedtoformulatetheneedsofscienLficresearchthroughtheyears.

Philosophy&science:alinkthatsurvivedmillenia

 ThemajoringredientsofscienLficmethodologywasprovidedbythegreekphilosopher,Aristotle,in350BC.

 Empiricismisatheorywhichassertsthatknowledgearisesfromexperience.

“ThusitisclearthatwemustgettoknowtheprimarypremisesbyinducLon;forthemethodbywhichevensense‐percepLonimplantstheuniversalisinducLve.”–Aristotle“PosteriorAnaly;cs”

TheIslamicGoldenAge

“Truthissoughtforitsownsake.Andthosewhoareengageduponthequestforanythingforitsownsakearenotinterestedinotherthings.Findingthetruthisdifficult,andtheroadtoitisrough.”–Ibnal‐Haytham“Cri;queofPtolemy”

• EarlyislamicphilosophyseestheemergenceofinducLveexperimentalmethodsduringthemiddleages.• ThefirstexperimentalscienLficmethodwasdevelopedbytheislamicscienLstIbnal‐Haythamaround1000AC.

TheformaLonofmodernmethodology

 TheearliestEuropeanphilosophertoadvocatemodernscienLficmethodswasRogerBaconinthe13thcentury.

 BaconwasinspiredbytheworksofPlato,AristotleandearlyIslamicscienLsts.

 HismethodwasdescribedasarepeaLngcycleofobservaLon,hypothesis,experimentaLonandtheneedforindependentverificaLon.

TheformaLonofscienLficmethodology“Experimentalscience,thesolemistressofspeculaLvesciences,hasthreegreatPrerogaLvesamongotherpartsofknowledge:Firstshetestsbyexperimentthenoblestconclusionsofallothersciences:NextshediscoversrespecLngthenoLonswhichothersciencesdealwith,magnificenttruthstowhichthesesciencesofthemselvescanbynomeansacain:herThirddignityis,thatshebyherownpowerandwithoutrespectofothersciences,invesLgatesthesecretsofnature.”–RogerBacon“OperaMajor”

ThebirthofscienLficconcepts

 GalileoGalileiinthe17thcenturysubsLtutesreasoningandexperimentaLonfoundedonhypothesistosimpleobservaLon.

 Inhisstudyoffallingobjects,GalileomovesfrompurelyqualitaLveideastoquanLtaLveconcepts.

 HeemphasisedtheimportanceofdeducLveknowledgetoquanLfyobservaLons.

ThebirthofscienLficconcepts“Philosophy(ie.Physics)iswriceninthisgrandbook…Imeantheuniverse,whichstandsconLnuallyopentoourgaze,butitcannotbeunderstoodunlessonefirstlearnstocomprehendthelanguageandinterpretthecharactersinwhichitiswricen.ItiswriceninthelanguageofmathemaLcs,anditscharactersaretriangles,circles,andothergeometricalfigures,withoutwhichitishumanlyimpossibletounderstandasinglewordofit;withoutthese,oneiswanderingaroundinadarklabyrinth”–GalileoGalilei“TheAssayer”

 AcontemporaryofGalileoGaliei,FrancisBacondescribedaraLonalprocedureestablishingcausaLonbetweenphenomenabasedoninducLon.

 HisinducLvereasoningproceedsfromfact,toaxiom,tolaw.

 HisideasreliedonexperimentalhistoriestoeliminatealternaLvetheoriesandledlatertoPopper’sideaoffalsificaLonism.

FromexperimenttoeliminaLveinducLon

FromexperimenttoeliminaLveinducLon

“MenhavesoughttomakeaworldfromtheirownconcepLonandtodrawfromtheirownmindsallthematerialwhichtheyemployedbutif,insteadofdoingso,theyhadconsultedexperienceandobservaLon,theywouldhavethefactsandnotopinionstoreasonabout,andmighthaveulLmatelyarrivedattheknowledgeofthelawswhichgovernthematerialworld.”–FrancisBacon“NovumOrganum”

Courtesyofxkcd.com

Newton’srules…ofreasoning NewtonemphasisedtheideaofraLonalisminfavourofBacon’sempiricalapproachatthebeginningofthe18thcentury.

 Heoutlines4rulesofreasoningin“Principia”:  Causestonaturalthingsneedtobebothtrueandsufficienttoexplainthem.

  Tosamenaturaleffectsneedtoassignsamecauses.

  Stateofbodieswithinreachofourexperimentsaretobeconsidereduniversal.

  ExperimentalphilosophyshouldlookuponproposiLonscollectedbygeneralinducLon.

Newton’srules…ofreasoning

“Toexplainallnatureistoodifficultataskforanyonemanorevenforanyoneage.Itismuchbecertodoaliclewithcertainty,andleavetherestforothersthatcomeameryou,thantoexplainallthings.”–IsaacNewtonunpublishednotesofthe“PrefacetoOp;cks”

TheproblemofinducLon TheproblemofinducLonisthequesLonwhetherinducLvereasoningleadstotruth.

 DavidHumeintroducedthisprobleminthemid‐18thcentury

 WhatisthejusLficaLonfor:  generalisingabouttheproperLesofaclassofobjectsbasedonnumberofobservaLons(demonstraLvereasoning)

  Asequenceofeventswilloccurinthefutureasithasinthepast.(probablereasoning)

TheproblemofinducLon“IfwewouldsaLsfyourselves,therefore,concerningthenatureofthatevidence,whichassuresusofmacersoffact,wemustenquirehowwearriveattheknowledgeofcauseandeffect.”–DavidHume“Anenquiryconcerninghumanunderstanding”

• Hume’ssetachallenge:tocomeupwithadeducLvereasonfortheconnecLonbetweendemonstraLveandprobablereason.• Ifheisright,jusLficaLonofinducLoncanonlybeinducLve.

TheproblemofinducLon

 ThisbegsthequesLon:AsinducLonisbasedonanassumpLonofaconnecLon,itcannotitselfexplaintheconnecLon.HencetheproblemofinducLonisnotonlytheuncertaintyoftheconclusionderivedbyinducLonbutdoubtstheveryprinciplethroughwhichtheconclusionarederived,ie.themethod.

ThescienceofDescartes:deducLon DescartesprovidedaphilosophicalframeworkforthesciencesbasedsolelyondeducLonin1637.

 Fourrulestodefinecorrectapproachtoprogress:  Firstruleistodoubtanypreconceivedknowledge.

  Seconddividestheproblemintosmallpartstomakeiteasier.

  Thirdinvolvesorderingthoughtstomovefromthesimplesttomorecomplexconcepts.

  Lastisthedevelopmentofgeneralconclusionstoavoidomipnganythingintheprocess.

ThescienceofDescartes:deducLon“Cogitoergosum”–RenéDescartes“Discourseonthemethod”

Theexistenceofaprioriknowledge KantofferedasoluLontotheproblemraisedbyHume:theunderstandingoftheworldhasitsfoundaLonsinbothexperienceandaprioriknowledge.

 Theexternalworldprovidesthosethingswhichwesense.Itisthemindthatgivesitorderandallowsustocomprehendit.

 Theconceptofthemind(understanding)andpercepLon(sensibility)areintertwinedandformcomprehension.

Theexistenceofaprioriknowledge

“Thoughtswithoutcontentareempty,intuiLonswithoutconceptsareblind”

“Since,thentherecepLvityofthesubject,itscapacitytobeaffectedbyobjects,mustnecessarilyprecedeallactualpercepLons,andsoexistinthemindapriori”–ImmanuelKant“Cri;queofpurereason”

KantdeliveringalecturetoRussianofficers

DeducLveversusinducLvereasoning

 DeducLvelogicisreasoningwhichevaluatesargumentsbylookingforthevalidityoftheconclusionstobealogicalconsequenceofthepremises.

 DeducLveargumentsareeithervalidorinvalid,nevertrueorfalse.

 InducLvelogicisreasoningwhichascribesproperLesbasedonrepeatedobservaLons.

 HypothesesarejusLfiedbymeansofafinitenumberofexperienceswhichwillleadtoageneralconclusionabouteventsofthesametype

Theeffectualartofdiscovery

 WilliamWhewellproposedadescripLonofmethod,namedthehypotheLco‐deducLvemethodin1840.

 ScienLficenquiryproceedsviahypothesisinaformthatcouldconceivablybeflasifiedbyatestonobservabledata.

 HeexaminedthemethodandacemptedtoconstructsciencebyuniLngideastofacts.

Theeffectualartofdiscovery HeanalysedinducLoninthreesteps:  theselecLonofthefundamentalidea,suchasspace,number,causeorlikeness.

 amorespecialmodificaLonofthoseideassuchasauniformforce.

  thedeterminaLonofmagnitudes.

“ineveryactofknowledge…therearetwooppositeelements,whichwemaycallIdeasandPercepLons”–WilliamWhewell“OnthePhilosophyofDiscovery:ChaptersHistoricalandCri;cal”

TheformaLonoffalsificaLonism PoppertookfalsificaLonisminthemid20thcenturyashiscriterionofdemarcaLonbetweenwhatisandisnotgenuinelyscienLfic.

 AtheoryshouldbeconsideredscienLficifandonlyifitisfalsifiable.

 PopperalsodevelopedthetermcriLcalraLonalism;scienLfictheoriesandanyotherclaimstoknowledgecanandshouldberaLonallycriLcised.

 Empiricaltheoriesshouldbesubjectedtotestswhichmayfalsifythem.

TheformaLonoffalsificaLonism“Wecanestablishfourdifferentstepswithwhichatheorycanbetested.Firstofallthereisthelogicalcomparisonoftheconclusionstotesttheinternalcoherenceofthesystem.Secondly,thesearchforthelogicalformofthetheoryiscarriedout,whichhasthegoalofdeterminingifthetheorywillconsLtutescienLficprogressinthecaseitwillsurviveourvarioustests.Intheend,thetheoryistestedbyproceedingatempiricalapplicaLonsoftheconclusionsthatcanbeextracted…Wetrythentomakeadecisionbasedonthecomparisonoftheresultsoftheexperiments.IfthisdecisionisposiLveandtheconclusionsareverified,thetheoryhassucceededthetest…otherwiseitwasfalsified”–KarlPopper“TheLogicofScien;ficDiscovery”

ThestructureofscienLficprogress KuhnarguedthatsciencedoesnotprogressviaalinearaccumulaLonofnewknowledgebutbyperiodicrevoluLonscalled“paradigmshims”.

 HerejectedtheideaofasinglemethodthatappliestoallscienceandarguedthatthereislicleevidenceofscienLstsfollowingafalsificaLonistmethodology.

 Asanomalousresultsbuildup,sciencereachesacrisis,atwhichpointanewparadigm,whichagglomeratestheoldresultstogetherwiththeanomaliesintooneframework.

ThestructureofscienLficprogress

“First,thenewcandidatemustseemtoresolvesomeoutstandingandgenerallyrecognizedproblemthatcanbemetinnootherway.Second,thenewparadigmmustpromisetopreservearelaLvelylargepartoftheconcreteproblemsolvingacLvitythathasaccruedtosciencethroughitspredecessors.”–ThomasKuhn“TheStructureofScien;ficrevolu;on”

ReconcilingPopperandKuhn ImreLakatosacemptedtoreconcilefalsificaLonismandtheideaofscienLficrevoluLonbyarguingthatscienceprogressesbythefalsificaLonofresearchprogramratherthanmorespecificuniversalstatements.

 TheconsequenceoffurtherdebatesisthatscienLficmethodisasetofcoreprinciplesthatareatthefoundaLonofscienLficenquirytoday.

Whatisthecorrectmethodology? ThequesLonofhowscienceoperatesandthereforehowtodisLnguishcorrectscienLficmethodologyandpseudosciencehasimportancewellbeyondscienLficcircles.

 EachdiscoveryhasbroughtpeopletothinkofnewideasandbroughtupnewissuesinthecredibilityofthenewscienLficdiscoveries.WhatisascienLfictruth?

 ButnaturehastaughtusthroughhistoryhowtointerpretitsbeautyandwillconLnuetogiveusthetoolstodescribeitscomplexstructure.