FASH 162 Lecture Notes - Lecture 46: Scientific Method, Thomas Kuhn, Demarcation Problem
30 Jul 2020
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Soft science = cognitive science / social- hard science= natural science (expert knowledge). Important key figures: popper, lakatos, kuhn (need to know their theories). Science"s claim of superiority was based on 4 principles: realism: there is a physical world with independent objects, which can be understood by human intellect, objectivity: knowledge of the physical reality does not depend on the observer. Consequently, objective agreement among people is possible, irrespective of their worldviews. Science aims to uncover this knowledge so that it becomes public, verifiable and useable: truth: scientific statements are true when they correspond to the physical reality, rationality: truth is guaranteed because scientific statements are based on sound method. Scientific statements are not arbitrary guesses, but justified conclusions grounded on convincing evidence for good reasoning, and expressed with the right level of confidence. From ancient greece to the end 19th c : thoughts about information acquisition. The real idea was knowledge as exemplified by mathematics and geometry.
