Academic Skills | Chapter 11 | 17.10 | Week 7| Pragmatism
Look up relativistBreif recap
- Lakatos
Sophisticated falsificationism and progressive programs
- Theories cannot be judged against reality but can be meaningfully compared to one
another (which one does a better job predicting reality?)
- Feyerabend (against method) versus Sokal (hoax)
- Scientific realism versus constructive empiricism
- Even if a model predicts empirical facts is still may be wrong
Pragmatism
Empirical adequacy (theory works..for some reason)
- Ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily
- The meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of
accepting it
- The unpractical idea not accepted
What does it mean in reality...what actions will be taken?
What is science
Novel systematic way of collecting info about the world. Thoughts and beliefs are determined
by the world around us. Make sense of the world around us. Pseudoscience does not help
predict anything. Learn things that helps the now and here
We dont need universal ideas, need helpful ones
concerned more with matters of fact than with what could or should be
Peirce’s principle of pragmatism
- Beliefs (ideas, convictions,opinions)are in fact rules for actions
- To judge the meaning of an idea, we only have to assess to which behaviour
it leads, as his behaviour is the only sign of the idea
- What are the consequences of beliefs is it useful?
- What does the idea lead to, and how will they translate into reality
- Similar relevance of objects: it lies in their effects: which sensations do it
cause and which reactions should we prepare
- Our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the
object (consequences (interacting with it) of an object is the meaning of
it)
Ideas have empirical relevance
Descartes relied on his intuition to decide which ideas were ‘clear and distinct’
Dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo sum
- Peirce: this is only paper doubt vs living doubt is what matters, it actually feels
uncomfortable and makes it of practical importance that you learn about the
world (practical implications)
- When there is a pending decision (not metaphysical pondering)
- Reality offers options and forces us to make decisions. We learn by doing
Belief fixation
When in living doubt, we wish to find the reassuring state of belief through inquiry
Look up relativistBreif recap
- Lakatos
Sophisticated falsificationism and progressive programs
- Theories cannot be judged against reality but can be meaningfully compared to one
another (which one does a better job predicting reality?)
- Feyerabend (against method) versus Sokal (hoax)
- Scientific realism versus constructive empiricism
- Even if a model predicts empirical facts is still may be wrong
Pragmatism
Empirical adequacy (theory works..for some reason)
- Ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily
- The meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of
accepting it
- The unpractical idea not accepted
What does it mean in reality...what actions will be taken?
What is science
Novel systematic way of collecting info about the world. Thoughts and beliefs are determined
by the world around us. Make sense of the world around us. Pseudoscience does not help
predict anything. Learn things that helps the now and here
We dont need universal ideas, need helpful ones
concerned more with matters of fact than with what could or should be
Peirce’s principle of pragmatism
- Beliefs (ideas, convictions,opinions)are in fact rules for actions
- To judge the meaning of an idea, we only have to assess to which behaviour
it leads, as his behaviour is the only sign of the idea
- What are the consequences of beliefs is it useful?
- What does the idea lead to, and how will they translate into reality
- Similar relevance of objects: it lies in their effects: which sensations do it
cause and which reactions should we prepare
- Our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the
object (consequences (interacting with it) of an object is the meaning of
it)
Ideas have empirical relevance
Descartes relied on his intuition to decide which ideas were ‘clear and distinct’
Dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo sum
- Peirce: this is only paper doubt vs living doubt is what matters, it actually feels
uncomfortable and makes it of practical importance that you learn about the
world (practical implications)
- When there is a pending decision (not metaphysical pondering)
- Reality offers options and forces us to make decisions. We learn by doing
Belief fixation
When in living doubt, we wish to find the reassuring state of belief through inquiry
