Philosophy of Science Karlstad University卡尔斯塔得大学科学哲学.pptVIP

Philosophy of Science The last fifty years Divergence Questioning methods, validity, facts Realism/Antirealism Incommensurability The emergence of relativism in epistemology and antirealism in ontology. Paul Feyerabend Two false assumptions: - the first is that there is a theory-independent observation language with respect to which theories may be evaluated the second false assumption is that it is possible for a theory to agree with all the known facts in its domain ”Return to the sources” (history of science) ”Anything goes” (?) The Strong Programme Edinburgh University Challenging the internal/external division in the the writing of history of science The main principle: the interpreter of science should uncover the scientists’ beliefs by invoking the same types of cause to explain both rational (true, successful) belief and irrational (false, unsuccessful) beliefs Causal analysis: the causes are produced by social structures; the roles of the sociologists and philosophers of science The social construction of a scientific fact Bruno Latour (S. Woolgar): anthropological approach social constructivism the task of the sociologist of science is to give a debunking account of scientific practice, showing how scientists delude themselves into believing that they discover a reality rather than constructing it Realism Ontologically, realism is committed to the mind-independent existence of the world investigated by the sciences. Semantically, realism is committed to a literal interpretation of scientific claims about the world: realists take theoretical statements at “face value”. Epistemologically, realism is committed to the idea that theoretical claims (interpreted literally as describing a mind-independent reality) constitute knowledge of the world. Arguments for realism The ”no-miracles argument”: realism ”is the only philosophy that doesnt make the success of science a miracle” (H. Putnam). The basic explanation: our best theories are tr