Philosophy Selected Readings Section 3

Front 1

From what field of philosophy did science come?

Back 1

Natural philosophy

Front 2

What word did Sir Francis Bacon use to describe prejudices and beliefs that color the directon and interpretation of scientists?

Back 2

idols

Front 3

Who used the word idols to describe prejudices and beliefs that color the direction and interpretation of scientists?

Back 3

Sir Francis Bacon

Front 4

The predictions of science and the testing of the predictions arise out of a ______ .

Back 4

Scientific method

Front 5

From repeated experiments that support our hypothesis, we gather a body of evidence large enough to turn our hypothesis into a generalization about how the world works. This generalization is called _____.

Back 5

A theory, or, if sufficiently broad and useful, a law.

Front 6

From which philosopher did modern science arise?

Back 6

Aristotle

Front 7

What was the difference in the goal of Natural Philosophy and that of science?

Back 7

The goal of natural philosophy was not to discover how things work, but why they work, and assumed a purpose.

Front 8

In what way did Bacon's work strongly contract to that of Aristotle?

Back 8

Bacon's work emphasized the role of logic and reason, Aristotle sought to find the purpose and why things worked.

Front 9

From Bacon's lists of specific instances of heat, he derived general properties of heat. This purely theoretical activity is _____

Back 9

Induction or Inductive reasoning.

Front 10

What is the counterpart to induction?

Back 10

Deduction

Front 11

Describe deduction

Back 11

We use general principles, either derived by induction or asserted as universal postulates, to determine the properties of specific items or to assign them to classes.

Front 12

Who argued that paradigms cannot change under the control of an unchanging God?

Back 12

Thomas Kuhn

Front 13

What is a paradigm? (in Kuhn's usage.)

Back 13

A scientific concept so global and new that it generates whole new sets of problems and redefines the way we think about the natural world.

Front 14

Bacon identified four classes of problems that interfered with logic and accurate interpretation of nature. What are they?

Back 14

Idols

1) Idols of the tribe

2) Idols of the Cave

3) Idols of the Market Place

4) Idols of the Theater

Front 15

What are Bacon's Idols of the tribe?

Back 15

Have their roots in human nature and culture. We often place more importance on positive than negative results. - Humans have a tendance to impose order on the universe and look generalizations where there may be none.

Front 16

What are Bacon's idols of the Cave?

Back 16

Come from our individual personalities. Some hold tightly to out-of-date theories because of a deep reverence for the past, or for fear of the future. Others grasp at every new idea, valid or not. We fall victim to the cave when we replace rational search for these judgements.

Front 17

What are Bacon's idols of the Market Place?

Back 17

Language is the culprit. The imprecision in our language clouds our discussions and explanations of phenomena.

Front 18

What are Bacon's idols of the theater?

Back 18

The plays that have been produced in the past: religious beliefs and ancient philosophies. For example, Aristotle's belief in a cause and purpose in nature.

Front 19

Who argued that value-free science is impossible?

Back 19

Steven Rose and Hilary Rose

Front 20

Why did the Rose's believe that value-free science is impossible?

Back 20

Because most science is paid for by governments and big businesses, each with it's goals outside of the realm of science.

Front 21

What are Aristotle's four different types of causes?

Back 21

1) The matter (what it's made of)

2) The form (shape)

3) The mover (Things apart from the thing being moved)

4)For the sake of (it's purpose)

(Things in bracket are from internet source)

Front 22

Which of the four Aristotle causes corresponds to our modern notion of a cause?

Back 22

I think it is 3, the mover

Front 23

Aristotle compared the operations of nature to ....

Back 23

an artist and a doctor

(from an internet source)

Front 24

According to Bacon, what is the appropriate goal of scientific inquiry?

Back 24

That human life; be endowed with new discoveries and powers.

Front 25

Bacon believed that the most important type of reasoning in science was

Back 25

inductive reasoning

Front 26

List three types of tables Bacon thought scientists should construct

Back 26

1) Table of Essence and Presence

2) Table of Deviation, or absense in proximity

3) Table of degrees or table of comparison

Front 27

Galileo Galilei held that in discussions of physical problems we ought to begin with...

Back 27

Sense experience and necessary demonstrations

Front 28

True/False: Galileo believed that God gave us sense, reason and intellect and would not require us to deny them in physical maters?

Back 28

True

Front 29

According to Galileo, how should we read and interpret scripture? Why did he believe this?

Back 29

(not sure, this is my understanding of what he said)

Seeking spiritual things, not making physical judgements by sacred writings which teach us how to get to heaven, not how the heaven's go.

Front 30

Newton's goal was to develop

Back 30

...a science of motion to investigate forces of nature

Front 31

Newton sought to explain physical phenomena in terms of

Back 31

forces

Front 32

What is Newton's third law

Back 32

To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction; or, the mutual actions of two bodies upone each other are always equal and directed to contrary parts.

Front 33

According to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

Back 33

One can know either the position of an electron or its momentum, but not both simultaneously

Front 34

T/F There is an inescapably random element in quantum mechanical measurement?

Back 34

True

Front 35

Quantum mechanical predictions are..

Back 35

(Got me on this one - I think deterministic,impossible,probablistic)

Front 36

What is a scientific revolution?

Back 36

The extraordinary episodes in which a shift of professional commitments happens, tradition shattering complements to the tradition-bound activity of normal science. (What's the difference in this and a paradigm?)

Front 37

What is a paradigm?

Back 37

works served for a time implicitly to define the legitimate problems and methods of a research field for succeeding generations.

Front 38

Why is the establishment of a paradigm so important in the development of a science?

Back 38

In the absence of a paradigm or some candidate for paradigm, all of the facts that could possibly pertain to the development of a given science are likely to seem equally relevant.

Front 39

To be accepted as a paradigm, a theory must...

Back 39

...seem better than its competitors, but it need not, and in fact never does, explain all the facts with which it can be confronted.