PCB 4674C Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Bertrand Russell, Philosophy Of Science, Center For American Progress
Document Summary
To summarize when differentiating science and religion: science: rejects magical or supernatural explanations. Science: has nothing to say about spirits, angels, etc. (but this doesn"t mean that we can"t test hypotheses about proposed supernatural activities that are suggested to have effects on the material world). Science: does not require divine revelation to understand the world. Science: all scientific beliefs are provisional, and potentially falsifiable. Be careful not to confuse potential for falsification with the likelihood of falsification. So, the goals of science are to develop a provisional understanding of the world based on observation/ experimentation, reason, and hypothesis testing/falsification, avoiding magical or supernatural explanations, and ideally making useful predictions about the future of events. How does science achieve these goals: the first step has been called the principle of objectivity, the idea that there is a real objective world out there, independent of our perceptions.
