Science-Technology-Society from the Perspective of Philosophy of Science

Dominic T. Asis

OBECTIVES In the end of the class, the students should be able: To distinguish science from philosophy

of science To classify philosophical questions about

science based on coverage, concerns, and focus.

To value philosophy of science since it can be used for teaching

Learning Checkpoint 1 Classify whether the following statements

have scientific bases.1. Whenever rain is approaching, wave your

hard broom toward the rain cloud so that the air would blow it away.

2. Whenever your teeth aches, gargle water with salt to feel relief.

3. Whenever a black cat run across your way, bad luck will come along your way.

.4. Whenever it’s full moon, lesser fishes are caught in the sea.5. Don’t sing while cooking, or else your future spouse might die early.6. When cooking meat, put together papaya so that it would become more tender.

Learning Checkpoint 1

Done

You are right ! Congrats

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Guide Questions:How are you able to classify the statements??

What are your considerations in

answering ??

Introduction

All fields of science are deeply rooted in philosophy.

It was only during the 1700’s that distinction was made between science and philosophy.

Though both of them share same significant objectives, they differ in many respects.

Science PhilosophyAttained definite and tested knowledge of various matters , and has even resolved disagreement about those matters

Disagreement has always been the characteristic of philosophy

Science does not study itself

Philosophy subjects itself to critical examination.

Once science begins to reflect on itself, it becomes the philosophy of science

Philosophy of science examines a number of philosophical questions such as:

“What is science?”“What is scientific method?” “What is the nature of science?”“What kind of data can be used to

distinguish between causes and accidental regularities?”

“How much evidence and what kind of evidence do we need before we accept hypothesis?”

Philosophy Science

Significance of Philosophy of scienceThe Scientist and the philosopher of science

Philosophy of science: Its main components

Why study the philosophy of science?

It serves as an appropriate introduction to explain the scientific method.

It contributes considerably to the appreciation of the nature of science.

Play a positive role in ordering the ways students conceive of science, both as process and product.

Scientist Philosopher of science

They manipulate variables Based on their data, they are able to discover and explains the laws of nature formulating theory

Do nothing but ask themselves questions like: “What is the law of nature?” “What is a scientific method?”

Do experiments and draws conclusion.

Purely verbal, analytic, and reflective

The Scientist and the philosopher of science

Scientist Philosopher of science

Active in a wide range of diverging activities, discoveries, and modes of thoughts and progressively prolific

Concerned with the logic of science as a body of deductive systems of assertions

The Scientist and the philosopher of science

Kinds of Questions

1. Covers the implications of new scientific findings for traditional philosophical issue.

2. Deals with the analysis of the fundamental concept of diverse scientific disciplines.

Kinds of Questions

3. Focused on the nature of the goals of the scientific enterprise and the methods the scientists employs to achieve these goals.

Kinds of Questions

Determine the kind of philosophical question regarding science1. What is sound-as-wave and sound-as-experience?2. How much evidence and what kinds of evidence do we need before we accept hypothesis?3. How can research on computers and artificial intelligence support the thesis that human is a complex machine?

Learning Checkpoint 2

Components of Philo of Science

Philosophi

cal

Methodical

Analytical

A. Analytical and methodical- talk about science where we find topics like the patterns of scientific argumentB. Philosophical Discourse - Talk on the use of science to help with the solution of problems like how the results of scientific investigation help answer philosophical questions.

Philosophy of science: Its main components

The Evolution of Contemporary Views on the Philosophy of Science

17th Century Approaches to Scientific Methodology

Bacon’s Inductive Approach – Scientific Method

Sir Francis BaconWas the first to envision science as the key to progress. Recognized as a major prophet of the practical value of science and technology to the welfare of society.

Accg. To him, the purpose of all knowledge, including the natural sciences, was power – the power to improve life on earth by useful inventions.

He criticized the science of his time as being very little practical use.

He proposed that truth and value of scientific knowledge should be tested by its utility

Bacon’s Inductive Approach – Scientific Method

He believed that to advance human welfare was to serve God, thus he argued that both faith and science should be judged by their works.

He proposed in his “Novum Organum” a “new method” (The scientific method) based on the idea that scientific knowledge is cumulative, and that it can be increase with time by methodical hard work.

Through scientific experimentation, a great deal of facts be obtained and that more laws of nature are extracted by the process of induction.

Since Bacon heavily insisted that science must rest on careful induction and experiment, what might be his failure to fully understand the physical world??

Clue: Same reason for the Father of Genetics

Learning Checkpoint 1

Descarte’ Deductive Approach- Rationalism

Rene Descartes(1596-1650)He was not only an innovator

in philosophy, he was a great mathematician, the inventor of analytical geometry, one of the creators of mathematical physics, and a brilliant scientist in the histories of optics, physiology, and other branches of science.

The Theory of KnowledgeClaimed that we are capable of

discovering absolutely true knowledge.

This was based on his quest for certainty, so convinced was Rene that all of our ordinary information (including science and mathematical info. ) is subject to challenge and intellectual scrutiny.

Rene DescartesHe introduced doubts about

everything, not for the sake of doubting but for the purpose of obtaining “a good ground for assurance for myself, and to reject the quicksand and mud so that I might find the rock or clay.”

He search for an absolutely certain basis for all knowledge in order to eliminate anything that might possibly be false or doubtful.

In the Discourse on Methods and the Meditations on the First Philosophy, the simply lucid ideas of Descartes’ method of reasoning evolved in the style of a distinguished mathematician from one clear and distinct idea to another in an unbroken chain of deduction.

Descartes’ rationalism theorized that the deductive method of reasoning based on the mathematical procedures is superior to experience or sense perception as a source of knowledge.

GeneralizationBacon is the founder of empiricismDescartes is the founder of rationalismThey both shared two pervasive tenets

which influenced the Renaissance spirits

A. An enormous enthusiasm for physical science

B. The belief that the knowledge means power – that the ultimate purpose of theoretical science is to serve the practical needs of man.

Thank you for Listening

God bless us.