HPS100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Centrism, Immanuel Kant, Fallibilism
9 Jan 2020
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History and philosophy of science lecture 2- absolute. Can science actually prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt: scientific theories change through time. Ex: aristotelian physics to newtonian physics to the contemporary theory of general relativity: 500 years ago it was believed that the earth was in the centre of the universe (geo centrism). Then, 250 years ago we had kepler"s astronomy. Finally, we now have contemporary astronomy, which consists of the big bang theory, cosmology, etc. Is there such a thing as absolute knowledge: ex 1: mathematics. We could say: a long time ago, people started to notice that when you take one apple and add 2 more apples and then count them, you get three apples. You then generalize from you individual experience and conclude that this is the case for everything. You do not really need experience and observation to come across this. When we say 2, we think of 1 and another 1.
