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RESEARCH METHODSBIOLOGY 6910/FORESTRY 6913
WINTER 2020
JOHN A. KERSHAW, JR.
SCIENCEPHILOSOPHY
TECHNOLOGY
SCIENCE
PHILOSOPHY
A QUICK HISTORY/OVERVIEW OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• “The philosophy of science is as useful to
scientists as ornithology is to birds.”
• Normative or Descriptive
• A fundamental difference between speaking
or writing about a subject, and living or
doing the subject
https://philosophynow.org/issues/114/Richard_Feynmans_Philosophy_of_Science
BACONIAN SCIENTIFIC REASONING
• 1620: English Philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon,
laid the foundations of the Scientific Method
• “Objectively” collect “first vintage” data
without prior explanation in mind
• Theories created, then iteratively tested and
refined from evidence provided by the
senses
• Aim to arrive at general “truths”
• Avoid cognitive bias: “Idols of the mind”
OBJECTIVITY: IT’S EASY RIGHT? (IN CLASS DISCUSSION)
FRUITLESS ARGUMENTS
• “Science should be about collecting data in
an unbiased way to create hypotheses” VS
“Science should be about testing
hypotheses”
• “Reductionism, studying isolated
phenomenon in detail, is the most
productive form of science” VS “All biology is
systems biology”
“Science is either
physics or stamp
collecting.”
– Ernest Rutherford
AIMS AND GOALS OF SCIENCE
• Scientific Realism: there is a world out
there independently of us, and science
aims at finding out what it is like.
• Science aims at knowledge and/or truth
about the world (classical definition of
knowledge as justified true belief)
• Truth (knowledge) is valuable as such, for
its own sake (intrinsic value)
• Scientific Instrumentalism:
knowledge has on instrumental value,
not intrinsic value (denies that scientific
theories have truth values).
• Science aims at practical
recommendations and problem solving
• Knowledge and truth are not sought for
their own sake
SCIENCES, OBJECTS, AND METHODS
SCIENCE OBJECTS DOMINANT METHOD
SimpleReductionism
(analysis)
Logic and Mathematics Abstract objects: (propositions, numbers, symbols…) Deduction
Natural Sciences Natural objects: (physical bodies, field and interactions, living organisms…) Hypothetico-deductive Method
Social Sciences Social objects: (individual humans, groups, society…)Hypothetico-deductive Method
+ Hermeneutics
Humanities Cultural objects: (ideas, actions and relationships, language, artifacts…) Hermeneutics
ComplexHolism
(synthesis)
LOGIC SYSTEMS
• Deductive
• Inductive
• Abductive (hypothetico-deductive)
DEDUCTIVE LOGIC
• All As are B
• X is an A
• Therefore, X is a B
• A = 5, B = 4
• A + 2B = 13
• General statement
• Specific conclusion
• As long as both premises are true, the
conclusion must be certain
INDUCTIVE LOGIC
• All copper we have tested conducts
electricity
• X is a piece of copper, yet to be tested
• Therefore X will conduct electricity
• Specific statement – general conclusion
• Observation
• Pattern
• Conclusion
• Possibility of error
PROBLEMS WITH INDUCTION
• Generally attributed to David Hume
• Unsafe to generalize about properties of
a class of objects based on particular
instances of that class
• “all swans we have seen are white,
therefore all swans are white”
PROBLEMS WITH INDUCTION
• Presupposes that a sequence of events in
the future will occur exactly as the did in
the past
• Hume’s “Principle of uniformity of nature”
• Proving induction by induction is circular
• Hume concluded that we just have to
accept induction as an instinct
“The man who has fed the
chicken everyday throughout its
life at last wrings its neck
instead, showing that more
refined views as to the
uniformity of nature would have
been useful to the chicken.” –
Bertrand Russell
INDUCTION + EXPLANATION = ABDUCTION
• Science runs on abduction
• AKA inference to best explanation
• Aims to select best hypothesis among many
• Best hypothesis is the one that explains the
most with least
• “Never were there so many facts explained with
so few assumptions.” – Dawkins on Darwin’s
Natural Selection
• Avoid post hoc ergo propter hoc(correlation = causality)
• Consilience
• evidence from independent, unrelated sources
can "converge" on strong conclusions
• Roles of parsimony and elegance in science
• Entia non sunt multiplicandapraetor necessitate – William of Occam
(Occam’s Razor)
• “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” – Keats
• “Seek simplicity and distrust it.” – Whitehead
• Raffiniert ist der Herrgott, aber boshaft ist ernicht – Einstein
DEDUCTION :: INDUCTION :: ABDUCTION
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX3OXwpEpl8
MODELS AND SIMULATION
“All models are wrong but some
are useful.“ – George Box
MODELS AND SIMULATIONS
• Rowley’s original orrery
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siIZb
ABZahY
SCIENCE VERSUS TECHNOLOGY
• Science
• What is the character of?
• What if?
• Why?
• Technology
• How?
SCIENCE VERSUS TECHNOLOGY
Berthold der Schwarze and the (European) Invention
of Gunpowder
TECHNOLOGY
• Technology is about how we should do something
• Political systems
• Religions
• Scientific method
• Assembly lines
“TECHNOLOGY EXPANDS OUR WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT THINGS, OUR WAYS OF DOING THINGS”
Herbert A. Simon
THE REAL WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY – URSULA FRANKLIN
THE REAL WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY – URSULA FRANKLIN
PRESCIPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
• Associated with the notion of process
• Breaks a process down into steps with
different individuals in charge of each
step
• Gives rise to management structures and
surveillance
HOLISTIC TECHNOLOGIES
• Associated with the notion of craft
• An individual controls the process of
their own work from beginning to end
• Individuals in charge
RESEARCH, SCIENCE, DEVELOPMENT, AND TECHNOLOGY
TAKE AWAY MESSAGES
• Philosophy, science, and technology are different studies and different domains
• Science is concerned with natural phenomena
• Philosophy attempts to understand the nature of man, existence, and the relationship that
exists between the two concepts
• Technology is concern with how we do something – i.e., the control of processes
WRITING ASSIGNMENT #2 (TAKE HOME)
• Watch: The Scientific Method is Crap
• How does Teman Cooke’s view of the scientific method agree or diverge from your view of
the scientific method?
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