PSYC85H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Res Extensa, Scientific Revolution, Scientific Modelling
Document Summary
Recall: the renaissance: which gives scientists power. Role in society went from passive to active; active study of the world: revolution in physics: Systematic observations are now used to explain phenomena: methodological revolution: causing biases concluded that we should resort to categorizing to avoid such biases. Bacon noticed that we are humans who are susceptible to: revolution in physics and methodology puts focus back onto empiricism and. Empiricism: observing your surroundings to create ideas and theories about the way things work (inductive reasoning from general to specific) Deduction: ideas that can help lead to what you should observe (from specific to general) Descartes" epistemological position: very similar to plato"s position, descartes isn"t aligned with current thinkers of his era, doesn"t believe in empiricism, however 100% sides with deduction, some knowledge exists at birth (i. e. Geometry: sensation and perception are untrustworthy modes of knowledge acquisition.
