Chapter 7 reading | Critical Rationalism | Science on piles, Above a Swamp | 26.09
Enlightenment
- No need to appeal to authority (Socrates, or the bible)
- We carry the sources of knowledge, authorities in ourselves
- Two types of answer
- Gain knowledge with reason “Rationalism”
- Depending on the knowledge of sensory experiences “Empiricism”
- Comte a logical positivist created a shift “Philo of knowledge” to Philo of science”
- Critique of positivism was “Karl Popper”
Karl Popper 1902-1994
Critical rationalism
Falsifiability, a proposed demarcation line
“The Logic of Scientific discovery” -K.p
- Claimed logical positivism was dead
- Agreed with logic of mathematics for science and appreciated empirical testing
- What positivists missed: is that there is a rational aspect to knowledge and science
(fundamental importance)
- Theory comes before observation not after
Poppers clash with Marxism
1919 Popper joined sozialistische mittelschüler after demonstartion, thr group was killed by
police, Pooper left. Decisve event in personal and intellectual life
- Dogmatic theories and critical thinking
Popper meets Alfred Adler
Adler developed “inferiority complex”
“World is full of verificationsof the theory. Whatever happened always confirmed it”
Popper and Einstein
Can theory be considered scientific when it is always true, no matter what happens?
Poppers answer was neg.
- Predictions that follow theory may not always line up with reality
From Verification, via Confirmation to Falsification
How to draw a boundary around science and set it apart from non-science?
Errors doesn't eradicate their scientific merit
Science is inductive(mainly)
- Problem (also stated by hume) : it cannot be logically justified
- Cannot make argumentative leap from limited amount of observations
- E.g “ all swans are white”
- Hume: universal laws of nature cannot be verified, impossible to check every
instance under a “universal law”
- Everything derived from observation is speculative
Verification
- May be impossible, but it is possible to test statements that are derived from theory
- Carnaps’s proposal: attempt to increase a statement's degree of confirmation; a
theory must be in agreements with empirically established facts
- Science: process of gradually increasing information
Enlightenment
- No need to appeal to authority (Socrates, or the bible)
- We carry the sources of knowledge, authorities in ourselves
- Two types of answer
- Gain knowledge with reason “Rationalism”
- Depending on the knowledge of sensory experiences “Empiricism”
- Comte a logical positivist created a shift “Philo of knowledge” to Philo of science”
- Critique of positivism was “Karl Popper”
Karl Popper 1902-1994
Critical rationalism
Falsifiability, a proposed demarcation line
“The Logic of Scientific discovery” -K.p
- Claimed logical positivism was dead
- Agreed with logic of mathematics for science and appreciated empirical testing
- What positivists missed: is that there is a rational aspect to knowledge and science
(fundamental importance)
- Theory comes before observation not after
Poppers clash with Marxism
1919 Popper joined sozialistische mittelschüler after demonstartion, thr group was killed by
police, Pooper left. Decisve event in personal and intellectual life
- Dogmatic theories and critical thinking
Popper meets Alfred Adler
Adler developed “inferiority complex”
“World is full of verificationsof the theory. Whatever happened always confirmed it”
Popper and Einstein
Can theory be considered scientific when it is always true, no matter what happens?
Poppers answer was neg.
- Predictions that follow theory may not always line up with reality
From Verification, via Confirmation to Falsification
How to draw a boundary around science and set it apart from non-science?
Errors doesn't eradicate their scientific merit
Science is inductive(mainly)
- Problem (also stated by hume) : it cannot be logically justified
- Cannot make argumentative leap from limited amount of observations
- E.g “ all swans are white”
- Hume: universal laws of nature cannot be verified, impossible to check every
instance under a “universal law”
- Everything derived from observation is speculative
Verification
- May be impossible, but it is possible to test statements that are derived from theory
- Carnaps’s proposal: attempt to increase a statement's degree of confirmation; a
theory must be in agreements with empirically established facts
- Science: process of gradually increasing information
