PHILOS 1D03 Lecture : Philosophy and the Sciences-Mar.29. Week 12
Document Summary
Historical paradigms: history of science as revolutions between periods of normal science governed by paradigms. Storming the biology department: taking a bunch of lakatos" supporters, and taking over the biology department as a scientific revolution fits many of the criteria khun outlines, but is mob psychology as a revolution". Working out of a paradigm from within. Core methods and hypotheses (conventions) are retained, while everything else is revolutionized around them. It is the science of the same world, not just different perspectives. Incommensurability: newton and einstein are not rationally comparable. Increasing success at predicting and controlling the world. Ptolemy"s system failed to adapt to certain new observations. The no miracles argument: increase in prediction/control success. More phenomena explained and unified under the same explanatory theory, resulting in: Greater accuracy of prediction: the only explanation of empirical success is increasing truth. Our theories are approximating the truth: conclusion: realism about science. We are converging on the right answer.