Philosophy of Science: Methods, Truth, and History
Philosophy of Science
The philosophy of science reflects on scientific methods, is based on its criteria for truth, and tries to locate it within the totality of human projects.
What is Science?
Science is a systematic set of propositions, logically chained and verified. The notion of a system is essential to know the real truth does not exist in isolation but must be part of a systematic set of scientific truths.
Types of Science
Sciences have been classified in many ways:
- Human sciences as opposed to theological science.
- Sciences of ideas as opposed to sciences of facts.
From the standpoint of their purpose, some are theoretical sciences and others are practical sciences:
- Theoretical sciences are directed to theoretical knowledge.
- Practical sciences are directed to knowledge to act.
Physiology is a theoretical science; medicine is a practical science. Theoretical physics and aeronautics are practical. Philosophy is a theoretical and practical science at the same time.
By object, sciences are classified into:
- Formal sciences: They study logic and mathematical concepts, relationships, and ideal models.
- Natural sciences: They study physical, natural beings, such as physics, chemistry, and biology.
- Social sciences: They study human behavior and its creations, such as history, psychology, sociology, economics, and ethics.
Scientific Methods
- Inductive method: It is a kind of inference that enables us to move from particular instances to general statements, allowing the affirmation of a universal relationship that can be expressed by a law.
- Deductive method: It is a kind of inference that allows us to derive, from some given propositions called premises, another proposition called a conclusion.
The Formal Sciences: Mathematics, a Great Creation
From a philosophical perspective, mathematics appears as one of the great wonders of human intelligence. Its language allows us to calculate, speak of reality accurately and efficiently, and invent new concepts. Mathematics was invented to solve problems.
Formal Systems in Mathematics
A system is a set of related items. Formal science and formal mathematics study the correct ways of thinking, analyzing, and constructing formal systems, using a deductive method.
For many centuries, geometry was based on the idea that space was three-dimensional. After some innovative mathematical work, geometries were suggested that could work with all dimensions.
Requirements of a Formal System
- Define the terms that will be used: To be very strict in the use of terms and concepts, so that errors do not occur.
- Define the uncertainties resulting from axioms or postulates: These are principles that cannot be demonstrated but that are accepted as a foundation to build the entire system.
- Establish the transformation rules: These are the procedures for developing the system’s theorems.
- Deduce theorems: Propositions are valid within a system if they are derived from the basic axioms and follow the transformation rules.
Mathematics is present in our daily lives. The explanation is that our intelligence works more easily with content that forms mathematical structures.
Criteria of Mathematical Truth
The truth of mathematics is not based on experience but on the consistency of the system. An axiomatic system must meet the following requirements:
- Consistency: A system of axioms cannot lead to a contradiction.
- Independence: No axiom should be derivable as a theorem from other axioms.
Formal systems are absolutely sure, which is why other sciences have tried to apply that model to their own development. Axiomatic ethics is based on a fundamental axiom.
The Natural Sciences: The Method of Physical Sciences
The physical sciences study a variety of phenomena. Some merely observe, describe, and classify things, such as zoology, mineralogy, and anatomy. Other sciences, however, want to know the laws governing the internal structure of things. They use the hypothetical-deductive method, which involves the following steps:
- Discovery of a problem: The scientist observes something they do not know how to explain.
- Invention of a hypothesis: They try to find an explanation.
- Making an assumption of the hypothesis: Physics is formulated in mathematical terms, allowing for the deduction of consequences.
- Evaluation of the hypothesis: We must ensure that the hypothesis is compatible with other well-tested theories.
- When the evidence is sufficiently corroborated, it becomes a law or theory.
There are two meanings of the word “law”:
- A scientific law is a hypothesis about the processes, structure, or physical reality, sufficiently corroborated to allow for the calculation and prediction of phenomena.
- A juridical law is a rule promulgated by the competent authority.
Approaches to Scientific Truth
The main criteria to be applied are:
- Consistency: This is a formal criterion; it should be consistent internally and externally, i.e., not have contradictions within itself or conflict with other theories.
- Method and control: Evidence must be tightly controlled through methodical observation.
- Experimentation: A theory is strongest when it has been proven through repeated and varied experiments.
- Falsifiability: There must be a chance to prove that a theory is false. If a theory is not falsifiable, it means that its falsity cannot be proven.
- Prediction: A theory is corroborated when it can predict phenomena; the strength of the evidence obtained allows us to consider its acceptance justified, as can the amplitude of its explanatory power.
There is no consensus on the criteria for truth; truths gain consensus because they are scientific.
The Social Sciences: History and its Problems
Social sciences, that is, sciences with the human being as the protagonist, focus on history. This matter raises issues that are not only philosophical but also political and ethical. The natural sciences study deterministic systems, i.e., governed by strict laws. We can talk about tough or strong sciences versus soft sciences. History examines the facts.
Objectives of Historical Science
Historical science aims to respect the past by:
- Describing it objectively and impartially.
- Understanding it by including it in a model of motivations and desired purposes.
- Making hypotheses for interpretation: finding out if there are laws with scientific rigor, using well-proven historical and documentary sources.
Another issue of great social and political importance is that historical facts can be interpreted in different ways and used with special interests, not scientific ones. History also avoids ethnocentrism, which is focusing on a single perspective of history and culture.
Historical Method
The historical method is based on a critical study of documents, buildings, and the remnants of times past. It is aided by many complementary sciences: archaeology, linguistics, chemical analysis of materials, psychology, and medicine. It has to go beyond the exposure of past events; it should interpret them, understand them. The method used is called hermeneutics, the science of interpretation, which defends the need for empathetic understanding from the perspective of the subject. An interpretation of science is nothing more than a hypothesis that must prove its strength of evidence. Otherwise, it is not science but a simple opinion. Historical interpretations must be considered hypotheses that must be carefully corroborated.
Criteria of Historical Truth
The criteria for historical truth include truthful, complete, objective, and critical documentation and exposition. When interpretations or some kind of historical laws are enunciated, it is necessary to verify that there are facts corroborated by other scientific findings that confirm them and that another alternative explanation is worse than the one proposed, or that they can predict events.