Chapter 7 Does Science Tell Us the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?

1. Chapter 7Does Science Tell Us the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?

2. Introduction • Philosophy of Science – critical analysis of various sciences and their methodology • Scientism – blind faith in the power of science to determine all truth

3. How do we come to belief? • Charles Sanders Peirce built the foundation of pragmatism • Abduction – the method for discovering the best scientific hypotheses for a given situation

4. The Fixation of BeliefCharles Sanders Peirce • Examines the difference between doubt and belief • Doubt causes one to struggle for belief • Simply asking a question does not produce a struggle for belief • An inquiry does not need to begin with first principles, but from something which one does not doubt • When doubt ceases, the struggle ends and would be without purpose if it continued

5. The Fixation of BeliefCharles Sanders Peirce • Beliefs become fixed using: • Method of tenacity • Method of authority • A pirori method • Method of scientific investigation

6. The Growth of Scientific Knowledge • Science is based on laws • Deductive-nomological model (covering law model) – an explanation of an event consists in “covering” the event under some law from which the explanation is deduced • How are conclusions validated?

7. Conjectures and RefutationsKarl Popper • The growth of scientific knowledge comes from overthrowing theories and replacing them with better, more satisfactory ones • Rejects the idea that science grows through making conjectures based on theoretical laws

8. Conjectures and RefutationsKarl Popper • Stronger theories can be distinguished because they: • Contain the most empirical information • Are logically stronger • Can be more severely tested • A new theory must be tested empirically

9. Scientific Revolutions • Hypothetico-deductive method – involves deducing consequences that should hold if the hypothesis is correct and then testing it experimentally • Normal science – the idea that science accumulates truth by building on previous theories over time • Revolutionary science – scientists sometimes reject traditional, time-honored theories in favor of new, incompatible ones

10. Scientific Revolutions • Anomalies– new events that do not fit within the prevailing beliefs • Paradigm – scientific achievement so deep and impressive that it defines daily practice for a community of scientists • Incommensurable – describes the incompatibility of two paradigms and the lack of ability to determine which is more accurate

11. The Structure of Scientific RevolutionsThomas S. Kuhn • Defines normal science as research that is based on past scientific achievements • Paradigms are scientific achievements that attract more adherents than others and are open-ended enough to leave room for more discoveries • Scientific revolutions occur when an old paradigm is replaced with a new one • When paradigms change, there are usually a significant shifts in the criteria for determining the legitimacy of the problems and solutions

12. Objectivity and Science • Prejudice is a prejudgment and should be avoided • A bias is the perspective a person has and it cannot be avoided but a person should be aware of it • Standpoint theory – every person has a personal, social, cultural, and historical standpoint that limits and makes possible what they can know through discovering, analyzing, and critiquing standpoints. Popular among feminists and others.

13. Strong ObjectivitySandra Harding • The recognition of the role of standpoints in science and the production of knowledge leads to “strong objectivity” • Standpoint theory • Is not about understanding marginal lives more objectively, but about starting research from the location of the marginal life • Is not arguing that there is a universal description of a woman’s life that is a starting point for research

14. Science and Traditional Thought • How is scientific belief different from traditional religious belief? • Theodicy – explains why bad things happen

15. Old Gods, New WorldsKwame Anthony Appiah • Explores the relationship between his background of traditional African belief and his understanding of European scientific belief • To understand how irrational beliefs are sustained, one must understand • The ritual and beliefs that support it • Historical sources of ritual and belief • What sustains the ritual and belief

16. Old Gods, New WorldsKwame Anthony Appiah • Rationality is an ideal because it is something that should be reached for (truth) but that cannot be completely realized • Traditional religious theory is like natural science in that they both explain, predict, and control • Religious belief explains life in terms of personal forces, while natural science explains it by impersonal forces (Robin Horton) • Modernity is more accommodative than traditional cultural beliefs

17. The Will to Truth • “discursive formations” are what Foucault describes as something that operates independently of the intentions and beliefs of individuals, such as language • What are the discursive formations of knowledge, science, or the desire for truth?

18. The Discourse on LanguageMichel Foucault • In every society, discourse is determined by certain procedures that are meant to avert the powers and dangers of discourse, cope with chance events, and avoid materiality • Discourse is determined by: • Rules of exclusion • Opposition between reason and folly • Will to truth or knowledge

19. Truth and PowerMichel Foucault • The “political economy” of truth is characterized by truth being: • Centered on scientific discourse • Subject to economic and political demand • Circulated widely • Produced and transmitted under control of political and economic apparatuses • The issue of political debate and social confrontation