BIOL 1209 Chapter : 20140408 155716
PSYC 4008
Exam 2
Characteristics of science
Characteristics outside of science
(philosophy, theology, art, etc.)
Determinism
Indeterminism
Empiricism
Rationalism
Inductivism
Deductivism
Mechanism
Vitalism
Monism
Dualism
Naturalism
Supernaturalism
Determinism – Indeterminism
o Determinism: all things are caused by something
o Indeterminism: all things are spontaneous; we are free to do whatever we want; free will
Empiricism – Rationalism
o Empiricism: basing truth on experience; you experience it directly (see it, hear it, etc.)
• Epistemology: branch of philosophy; study of the basis of truth; things are either true or
false
o The earth revolves around the sun→ we all accept it→ Why? Because of
documentation, evidence, views from satellites, etc. → empiricism
o Rationalism: establishing of a belief based on reason
• We are all stationary in our chairs because of gravity; we’ve never felt gravity; it’s just a
theory; it is explained, but we will not experience it directly; concepts that we hold to be
true but cannot experience them
Inductivism – Deductivism
o Inductivism: look for individual instances of things that you believe to be true
• Dropping something to prove to yourself that gravity exisits
o Deductivism: you start with something universal, something presumed to be true, and you
derive an individual idea
Mechanism – Vitalism
o Mechanism: course of events in a sequence is determined
o Vitalism: some force, or principle, that is important; not material; outcome is ascribed to
“chance”; invokes a “vital” principle (which is thought to be the soul)
Monism – Dualism
o Monism: belief that every experience is either simply physical or non-physical
• Mentalistic monism: conception that everything we know and experience is a mental
process and therefore you think that we all exist and everything is real; *we don’t buy
this idea that everything is purely mental
o Dualism: belief that every experience is a combination of physical and mental processes
• Psyche: spiritual essence of what we are
• Problem with dualism: if you accept the methods of science, and you believe that we are
physical, you can come up with a purely mechanistic point of view
o And if you believe that there are things that are non-physical, mental things that
are not physically based, how do those two affect one another?
Naturalism – Supernaturalism
o Naturalism: belief that everything we need is in us
• There is nothing other than humans; studying humans is all we need to understand
humans, we don’t need anything else
o Supernaturalism: belief that there is something about human beings that is transcendent and
beyond common, natural events
• You are brought to the conclusion that the best way to explain humans will be
something not in the natural world
Catholic Church:
Index of Prohibited Books: where Copernicus’s writings were placed for 200 years
Nicholas Copernicus:
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium: Heliocentric theory
• Direct violation of doctrine
• Died after this was published and wasn’t condemned until later and was excommunicated
• Book was banned and put into the Church’s Index
He wrote this based on his observations of the movement of objects in our solar system
The officially sanctioned astronomy of his day was that the world was stationary – “the world is
stabilized and cannot be moved’
- Copernicus disagreed
- Before him, we thought of the Earth as being in the center with everything else moving around
us in a perfect circle
- Copernicus observed that if you look at the way things move in the sky, you see faults in these
former beliefs – things don’t move consistently
° Some get brighter and darker, some move in different directions and at different speeds
- At the time of Copernicus, if you thought this way that the earth was the center, you could
construct models that roughly approximated the movements of these celestial objects, but it
would take hundreds of circles within circles within circles – you can actually see these in
some museums
- Copernicus saw that if you put the sun at the center, it would correct many of the problems –
also, if you say the earth revolves around the sun and is revolving on it’s own axis, you correct
even more of these circles within circles
He was proposing something that was directly in opposition to established authority
He wrote this book and finished it thirteen years before he published it – ended up getting it
published towards the end of his life
- Dedicated it to the Pope
MODERN PERIOD
° Begins at the beginning of the 17th century – by this time, the writings of people like Vesalius and
Copernicus were being suppressed by the church
Copernicus’ was banned for 200 years – as a Catholic, you could not read it
World was not completely materialistic – still some religious
° Copernicus was reinstated around the 1980s – John Paul I had officials look back on the case and had
his writings brought back
° The land was becoming less Church/God centered and more centered on naturalism/science
An increasing reliance on mathematics is one thing that pushed this change
Isaac Newton:
Scientific Revolution: seeing the world in terms of numbers and measurement and natural
process
Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica: Law of Gravity
Convinced the people of his day that you didn’t have to take away from your faith, it can reveal
Quantitative approach was adopted by psychology – trying to explain humans
- Psychology intentionally tries to emulate his point of view
Document Summary
Characteristics outside of science (philosophy, theology, art, etc. ) Supernaturalism: determinism: all things are caused by something, indeterminism: all things are spontaneous; we are free to do whatever we want; free will. Because of: rationalism: establishing of a belief based on reason documentation, evidence, views from satellites, etc. Mechanism vitalism: mechanism: course of events in a sequence is determined, vitalism: some force, or principle, that is important; not material; outcome is ascribed to. Chance ; invokes a vital principle (which is thought to be the soul: monism: belief that every experience is either simply physical or non-physical. Copernicus observed that if you look at the way things move in the sky, you see faults in these. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium: heliocentric theory: direct violation of doctrine. He wrote this based on his observations of the movement of objects in our solar system.
