Subjective Assessment in STEM: Belief vs. Knowledge
Opinion
Opinion is a subjective assessment. An opinion is usually a review of reality, how resources should be used, and may be based on beliefs, but normally the content is not supported by reasons.
Belief (Assertive Use)
When we speak of belief in STEM, we often do not have enough evidence to prove it. Belief is the acceptance of the truth of knowledge.
Knowledge
Knowledge is the belief of which STEM fields are safe and can be trusted. The possibility of rationally justifying something characterizes knowledge. The belief is no longer subjective knowledge but objectively true. Knowledge has two types:
Theoretical Knowledge
Theoretical knowledge describes and explains the natural and social world around us. To know some philosophy is contemplative and disinterested. Knowledge arises from simple desire, not to guarantee our survival, although it usually contributes to it.
- Describe: Observe what happens, test it, and note its characteristics.
- Explain: Determine the causes of what happens.
- Predict: Anticipate what will happen.
Practical Knowledge
Practical knowledge is not an explanation or description of the world, but a way to act, either by manipulating the environment in the production of goods, in producing works of art, or in determining the correct action. This know-how exists in all fields: artistic, technical, moral, etc.
Acquisition of Knowledge
Language plays a decisive role in the comprehension of reality. Through language, we receive most of the information that configures our most elaborate knowledge: in school, in books, in the media, etc.
Storage and Transmission
Mechanisms to store and disseminate the amount of information we possess (books, libraries, the internet) are crucial. Thanks to this, each new individual does not need to start from zero and can acquire all the experience and knowledge accumulated during centuries. This guarantees the advancement of science.
Characteristics of Language
From linguistics, it is considered that human language is the faculty of communicating through a system of signs. This faculty is manifested in the specific language used by each speaker and has the following characteristics:
- Conventional: Meanings are arbitrary.
- Social: The relationship is arbitrary but has an agreement.
- Creative: From a small number of elements, we can form all the words we want. For example, we have 27 letters in Catalan, and these form phrases and sentences that give meaning to things.
Significant
A sequence of phonemes that belong to the language areas. A simple word itself is meaningless.
Meaning
An idea or concept associated with a significant and consequently near the area of thought. It connects an idea or a concept with a significant word associated with its definition.
Referent
An object, quality, or process to which we refer, and that belongs to the scope of reality, the reality to which the linguistic sign refers.
Proposition
A proposition is a declarative sentence that affirms or denies something. It can be real and justifiable. Truth applies to a prayer, and we take a step or make an authentic object that identifies with reality, as opposed to apparent reality. That is, the true facts are the true facts, the apparent ones are misleading. To understand why, the pursuit of truth is a process of unveiling what is authentic, which otherwise remains hidden by appearances. Types:
- Empirical: Affirm or deny anything about the empirical content of the world. They can be contrasted with experience. Examples: The Ebro river passes through Zaragoza, tobacco causes cancer.
- Formal: They have no empirical content; they speak of the relationship between symbols. Example: 3² = 9.
Truth as Correspondence of Empirical Statements
A statement is true when there is a match between what it expresses and the reality to which it refers. For example: “Maria and John went to the movies” is true if Maria and John went to the movies, but it is false if they did not. This theory was first proposed by Aristotle. Since then, many philosophers consider that a statement is true when what it indicates occurs in reality.
Reasoning
Reasoning is the process that allows us to obtain new knowledge based on other knowledge. Example: <Today is a magnificent day>, <the grass is wet> -> <Today is a magnificent day and the grass is wet> -> therefore, new knowledge <someone watered the grass>.
Logic
But the grass can be wet for another reason: <My brothers had a water balloon fight>. Logic deals with certain secure data, as if we are to ensure the truth of the conclusion, we relate these data appropriately. That is, logic is considered the philosophical discipline that studies the fairness or validity of reasoning.
Any inference (reasoning) consists of:
- Premises: A set of statements that express the data from which we start. Example: The thief of my cheese is a cat or a mouse. / The footprints show that it is not a mouse.
- Conclusion: The final statement that expresses the new information obtained from the premises. Example: The thief of my cheese is a cat.
* Fallacy: Incorrect reasoning that seems correct but is not. The opposite of valid reasoning is invalid reasoning.
- Deduction: Consists of transferring the truth of the premises to a less general conclusion. When this type of inference is correct, the conclusion is necessarily derived from the premises: it is impossible that if these are true, the conclusion is false.
- Induction: Reaching a general conclusion from less general information given in the premises.
In deduction, the conclusion derives necessarily from the premises. In induction, we can only talk about a certain probability because the truth of the premises does not ensure that the final conclusion is true.
The Validity of Reasoning
We do not talk about real reasoning, but about correct or valid reasoning. That is, reasoning cannot be true or false since it does not affirm or deny anything. The fairness of our reasoning is an important requisite to reach true conclusions. However, it is not sufficient. To be sure of the truth of the conclusion, two conditions must be met: the fairness of the reasoning and the truth of the premises. Example:
- “If the Earth is fixed, then the sun would move around us. The Earth is fixed. [The sun moves around us].” In this case, the reasoning is correct, but some premises are false, and so is the conclusion.
- “This is a book by Marina or the train passes through Vilassar. This book is by Marina. [The train passes through Vilassar].” In this case, the premises are true, and so is the conclusion, but the reasoning is incorrect.
Logic deals exclusively with the validity of reasoning. The truth of the premises lies in other disciplines.
Differences Between Truth and Validity
The premises and the conclusion can be true or false, but reasoning is not true or false, but valid or invalid. It is valid if the premises are correctly related to the conclusion. The premise is true or not depending on whether it approaches reality.