PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE POWERPOINT SLIDES

SCIENCE
- naturalistic explanation
    - all explanation is of nature, in terms of nature
    - allows no entities that have powers beyond other entities, that are not subject to determinism, that are uncaused or otherwise unique
- our view of nature: scientific materialism
    - only matter in motion exists
    - view of nature resulting from 17th century science

SCIENCE AS METHOD
- systematic empirical observation
    - guided by theory to reveal something about world
- theory is set of testable propositions
    - has implications for observation
    - organizes past observations
    - guides future observations
    - focuses on solvable problems
- publicly observable data
    - replication by others using method info
    - peer review in journals

Albert Einstein (1905): Special Relativity
- say train travels at 100 ft per sec (68 mph)
- say bullet travels at 1000 ft per sec (680 mph)
- bullet fired from train in same direction, just when passing observer on platform
- 1 sec later: train is 100 ft from observer and bullet is 1000 feet from train ( = 1100 ft from observer)

but

- MAGIC BULLET travels at 1000 ft per sec for ANY POSSIBLE OBSERVER
- MAGIC BULLET fired from train in same direction, just when passing observer on platform
- 1 sec later: train is 100 ft from observer and bullet is...
    - 1000 ft from observer ( = 900 ft from train, which is 100 ft away)
    - 1000 ft from train ( = 1100 ft from observer)
- explanation: TIME GOES SLOWER ON THE TRAIN!


[THIS IS A TRUE STORY! Just substitute "photon" (a particle of light) for "magic 
bullet" and "186,000 miles/sec" for "1000 ft/sec" (with appropriate changes to 
the math), and this is an accurate description of our current understanding of 
time. The differences are so tiny as to be undetectable without extraordinary 
effort, but they are there, and our intuitions about how time passes are wrong.]



LOGICAL POSITIVISM (the standard view of science c. 1930)



Karl Popper (1934)
- observation isn't neutral and pure, as Logical Positivism claimed
    - scientists always observe particular aspects of a problem, and fail to observe others
- scientific theories must be FALSIFIABLE
    - it's good if they're confirmed, but it must be POSSIBLE for them to be 
falsified! (ex.: psychoanalysis, intelligent design of fossil record - can't be 
proven wrong)
    - best predictions are RISKY - theory should stand up to attempts to falsify it (ex.: general relativity in 1919)
    - UNfalsifiable theories are UNscientific - but that doesn't mean they're useless!


Thomas Kuhn (1962)
Kuhn diagram
- sociological theory of scientific change
- "PARADIGM" has two meanings (Kuhn, 1970):
    - exemplar: standard successful and productive technique of performing an experiment, yielding easily interpretable results
        - reaction time, lexical decision, infant sucking amplitude; maze 
running, classical conditioning, operant conditioning; introspection, psychoanalysis
    - disciplinary matrix: intellectual framework or set of shared concepts, assumptions, background knowledge, interpretations, providing a context for 
interpreting observations and building theory
        - structuralism, Gestalt, behaviorism, cognitivism;  connectionism; Gibsonian / ecological; psychometrics, psychoanalysis