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Philosophy of Science Essentials
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Rationalism
A philosophy asserting that reason and deduction from innate ideas are the primary source of knowledge, with proponents like René Descartes.
Empiricism
Philosophical view that knowledge comes from experience and observation, associated with philosophers like John Locke and David Hume.
Anomaly
Kuhnian concept describing empirical data that cannot be explained by the prevailing paradigm, which may lead to a scientific revolution.
Underdetermination
The idea that evidence may be insufficient to determine which of multiple scientific theories is the correct one, associated with Duhem-Quine thesis.
Methodological Naturalism
The principle that science should be concerned only with natural phenomena and should not invoke supernatural explanations, related to the work of Paul Kurtz.
Context of Discovery vs. Context of Justification
A distinction made in the philosophy of science concerning the differences between the generation of scientific ideas and the validation of those ideas, developed by Hans Reichenbach.
Falsifiability
A concept developed by Karl Popper to demarcate science from non-science, where a theory must be testable and refutable to be considered scientific.
Paradigm Shift
Coined by Thomas Kuhn, this refers to a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline.
Coherence Theory of Truth
The philosophical concept that true statements are those that cohere with an established body of accepted truths, linked to philosophers like Brand Blanshard.
Scientific Explanation
The understanding of a phenomenon in terms of causes, mechanisms, or reasons, through the use of scientific theories and observations.
Theory-Ladenness of Observation
The idea that what we observe is influenced by the theoretical framework we use, associated with philosophers like Ludwig Fleck and N. R. Hanson.
Bayesian Epistemology
A framework within the philosophy of science that uses Bayesian probability to update the degree of belief in hypotheses based on evidence.
Inductivism
A methodological principle that emphasizes observation and experimentation in deriving knowledge about the world, historically associated with Francis Bacon.
Realism
A perspective in the philosophy of science that posits the existence of a reality independent of our observations, defended by philosophers such as Hilary Putnam.
Instrumentalism
A view, often associated with John Dewey, that scientific theories are tools or instruments for predicting and controlling experiences, rather than true or false descriptions of the world.
Scientific Revolution
A term popularized by historian Thomas Kuhn to describe a period in which one scientific framework is replaced by another within a community.
Philosophy of Scientific Pragmatism
An approach to science emphasizing practical consequences and applications of theories, notably supported by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James.
Positivism
Philosophy by Auguste Comte and later Logical Positivists, holding that meaningful statements must be either empirically verifiable or tautological.
Pseudoscience
A term describing beliefs or practices that claim to be scientific but lack empirical evidence and adherence to the scientific method, critiqued by Karl Popper among others.
Deductive-Nomological Model
A formal view of explanation proposed by Carl Hempel and Paul Oppenheim, explaining phenomena by deducing them from general laws and initial conditions.
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