Philosophy and Science: Key Concepts and Principles

Posted on Dec 20, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

1. The Idea that Led to the Birth of Philosophy (Science)

Reasoning. Philosophy and science emerged in Greece, a place characterized by political freedom, the seed of democracy, and therefore, freedom of expression and thought. The merchant nature of Greece allowed them to develop the capacity for abstraction, critical analysis, and a comprehensive worldview of reality.

2. Did Plato and Pythagoras Need Experimentation to Understand the Physical World?

Reasoning. No, because they believed that the senses are unreliable.

3. Mythical Explanations

The first attempts to explain the human being were myth and magic.
Magic tries, above all, to solve practical problems.
The basis of magic is the belief that all things are animated by spirits.
Myth is a sacred narrative or symbolic legend that tells important events about natural and social phenomena.
The narration is accepted by society based on the authority of tradition.

4. Tools of Rational Explanation

Immediate observation makes sense of reality. Reason understands and interprets the data provided by the senses and is capable of reducing a relationship between two phenomena considered cause and effect, that is, to predict the consequences.

5. Features of Philosophy

All philosophical positions have in common the following characteristics:
It is a knowledge that questions the whole of reality; its field of study is the most universal. It is interested in all human experience. This is the main difference from the special sciences.
Philosophy is radical knowledge, in that it aims to reach the last explanatory principles of reality.
It is rational knowledge; it was born with the aim to understand and interpret and should argue, justify, and make coherent statements.

6. Philosophical Disciplines and Important Questions

Metaphysics asks what there is.
Alongside this came epistemology, which tries to answer the question: What and how can we know?
Logic and philosophy of language arise because language is the vehicle through which we express what we think.
The Greek philosophers experienced an anthropological turn. Thus appears the practical dimension of philosophy:
Ethics: the study of values, rules governing the duties owed by the individual, and moral behavior.
Political philosophy: it investigates all matters concerning the individual in society, the citizen, and the state.
Aesthetics: it is simply the study of beauty and the human capacity to create art.

7. Functions of Philosophy

It aspires to the knowledge of the most universal. It has a role in what we now call interdisciplinarity.
In its dialogue with the rest of science, it questions, analyzes, and evaluates the concepts and methods of other knowledge.
As critical knowledge, it leads us away from dogmatism.
It teaches us to reason correctly. We use abstract thinking to go beyond concrete thinking.
In practice, it guides human behavior, both in the private sphere and in morals.
Philosophy is concerned with those ultimate problems that are beyond science.

8. Comparative Table of Scientific Paradigms

| Consistent | Empirical adequacy | A posteriori knowledge | Synthetic propositions | Formal-analytic propositions | A priori propositions | Empirical contingency | |—|—|—|—|—|—|—| | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |

9. Nature and Characteristics of Science

Science is a system of knowledge about a specific sector of reality. Its objectives and functions are the following:
Analyze and interpret facts rationally.
Formulate laws based on their relation to each other.
Explain what might happen with a particular phenomenon in certain conditions.
Get knowledge to monitor natural phenomena in order to achieve benefits.
Characteristics:
It’s a rational way of knowing.
It is systematic and rigorous knowledge.
Its results are demonstrable.
It aims to be objective, eliminating interference that can influence the search for truth.
It is intended as universal knowledge.

10. Classification of Scientific Knowledge

Science is divided into two broad categories of knowledge:
Empirical Sciences: those that focus on the study of observable facts and are testable by experiment.
Natural Sciences (objective, physical world)
Social Sciences and Humanities (research field is the human being)
Formal Sciences: study abstract objects and ideals, which are the fruit of the human mind and are not found in nature.

11. Deductive and Inductive Methods

The deductive method is to move from general to particular. The inductive method is to move from the particular to formulate a general conclusion. The deductive method consists of going from general to particular. It must follow correct rules of inference. It is characteristic of formal science. In the empirical sciences, it is mainly used in the first stage of the investigation. These statements are at the level of thought. Inductive reasoning starts from particular facts to reach an overall conclusion.

12. Steps of the Hypothetical-Deductive Method

The hypothetical-deductive method is the fruit of the union of the two methods and provides better results in the empirical sciences.

Formulation of Observation
Hypothesis
Deduction of Consequences
Testing
Confirmation or Refutation

13. Arguments Against the Objectivity of Science

Science interprets reality; it does not represent it.
Science is not a finished body of knowledge; it is a process of building knowledge and understanding.
The value of observation is not absolute but relative, depending on the theory that led to the observer.

14. Are Only Epistemic Values Valid in Science?

No, T.S. Kuhn thinks that both epistemic and scientific values are valid because some depend on others.

15. Reality for Philosophy: Science and Metaphysics

Reality is all there is and what is done. Science studies only a field or base, while metaphysics implies universality.

16. Origin of Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the study of those ultimate principles of reality, encompassing all the facts considered by the special sciences but asking more radical and ultimate questions. In this sense, it includes universal concepts that unify the different fields of reality. It explains our natural world but through transcendent concepts.

17. Issues Addressed by Metaphysics

Knowing what reality is.
Studying the ultimate principles of reality (universal concepts).
Different ways of being. You need to understand reality. Philosophers have constructed metaphysical models to explain reality.

18. The Concept of Truth in Different Cultures

To the Greeks: reality is something that remains the same; hence, the truth is identified with the things that remain, which are always.
In the Roman world: the Latin word veritas refers to accuracy and thoroughness when we think something and when we express it through language.
In the medieval Christian world: the concept of eternal truth will be added, that is, necessary and immutable principles that are revealed to mankind by God’s action.
After the Renaissance revolution of the 16th century: the focus is on science, which begins to move away from religion.

19. Analytic and Synthetic Propositions

Analytic Propositions: in the formal sciences (logic, mathematics), which study abstract and ideal objects created by the human mind and not found in nature, a proposition is considered true if it does not conflict with the other propositions of the theory.
Synthetic Propositions: according to this theory, the truth is that mental representations of objects or facts correspond with the facts and objects as they exist or happen in reality.

20. Pragmatic Truth

American pragmatism carried out a rethinking in the way of understanding the truth. For philosophers belonging to this stream, what is true is what is effective, vital, and leads to success.

21. Criteria of Truth

Time: every word or statement located in the chronological origin of authority is accepted as true; the word of those who consider themselves wise in a subject. Over-reliance on a doctrine may lead to dogmatism.
The feeling of mental and psychological certainty: it relies on an inner conviction, subjective, and the objective to ourselves.
Evidence: the ultimate criterion of truth. We believe that one thing is clear when displayed directly or immediately to an individual. In the realm of empirical science, evidence of propositions ensures verification.
Interobjectivity and dialogue: something can never be considered objectively true if only one person says so. On the contrary, it must be shared by many individuals through dialogue. In conclusion, there is no absolute criterion of truth; it depends on the context of the science and the means to achieve it.

22. Vocabulary

Logos: Greek word that refers to the order-law, which governs reality, to human reason that attempts to unveil and discover this order.
Essence: that which makes something what it is and not another thing. It is opposed to existence.
Substance: a permanent and constant despite the changes that are shown.
Contingency: it can happen or not. Referred to a being that may or may not be.
Necessity: belief that things happen when and how it should happen, you can know and predict.
Prejudice: previous statement to adequate knowledge of one thing.
Dogmatism: uncritical attitude beyond the physical. This discipline studies reality from first principles or causes.
Aletheia: discovery, unveiling what is covered.
Hypothesis: is a guess or a scientific explanation that is tentatively proposed to interpret or to solve certain facts.
Law: universal explanation of an event that describes how a particular phenomenon happens.
Theory: A set of confirmed observations and related laws, and explanations about a particular area of reality.
Paradigm: scientific worldview that dominates for each historical period.
Determinism: current of thought that says that all actions and events are within the inexorable chain of cause and effect.
Teleology: in nature, nothing happens by chance but by purpose.
Define: Determine what a thing is, extracting what they have in common all individuals of the same class.
Transcendent: what is beyond the empirical world, surpassing the limits of the senses.
Proposition: statement that affirms or denies something.
Skepticism: attitudes towards knowledge according to which the human mind is unable to reach a true and complete knowledge of reality.
Relativism: all knowledge depends on the historical, social, chronological, etc. There can be no universal truth.