This is a presentation about the nature of science of my source "History and Philosophy of Science". You can watch the video version at: https://www.academia.edu/courses/plqxp1?tab=0&v=DPrRKE

1. History and Philosophy of
Science
Aldemaro Romero Jr., Ph.D.

2. Outline
1. Science, Philosophy, and History
2. What is Science?
3. How Science Works
4. Final Thought Experiments

3. Science as a Human Endeavor
• Religion, Philosophy, and Science
• Religion: (L. relig re) to bind
• First human burials: 350,000 YBP by
Neanderthals (Atapuerca, northern Spain)

4. Stonehenge
3000-2000 BCE

5. Science, Philosophy, History
Imre Lakatos (1922-1974)
“Philosophy of science
without history of
science is empty;
history of science
without philosophy of
science is blind”

6. Philosophy
• Philosophy: to study (Gr. phileîn, “to
love,” and sophía, “wisdom“)
• Philosopher: A lover of wisdom (what
does it mean to have a Ph.D.?)
• Explanations without supranatural basis,
from myths to facts to mathematics
• Firsts: Greek, Indian, Chinese, and
Buddhist

8. Relations of Ancient Cultures
• English:
• German:
• Spanish:
• Latin:
• Greek:
• Sanskrit:
• Persian:
• Arabic:
father
vater
padre
pater
patêr
pitr
pedar
ab

9. History
• Herodotus (Greece ca.
484 – Macedonia ca.
425 B.C.)
• Father of History
• History in Greek means
“inquiry”
• Historians generally
study periods

10. Timeline Events (YBP)
• ca. 15,000: first domesticated plants (rice)
• ca. 4725: Imhotep in Egypt considered the
first medical doctor
• ca. 4540: Pyramids of Egypt built
• ca. 4000: Chinese discovered magnetic
attraction

11. But, What is Science?

12. Science
• Science: (L. scientia) knowledge
• Known earlier as “Natural Philosophy” or
“Philosophy of Nature”
• The systematic and organized acquisition of new
knowledge about nature and the body of already
existing knowledge so gained (Wissenschaft)
• Naturwissenschaften: the natural sciences
Geisteswissenschaften: the humanities
Gesetzwissenschaften: the law-giving sciences
Geschichtswissenschaften: history
• Science: Matter + Energy + Natural Laws

13. Two Realms of Science
• Broad view of science: ranging from
experimentation to speculation
• “Popperian” science: the one that is only
testable by experiments

14. Physical Scientists vs.
Natural Scientists
• It all has to do with levels of
complexity
• Karl Popper (1902 - 1994)
• The Logic of Scientific
Discovery (1959)
• Preponderance of testability
and reductionism over
holism (i.e., physics is a
“real” science; biology is not)

15. Characteristics
• It is guided by natural law
• It has to be explanatory by reference to
natural law
• It is testable against the empirical world (it
is falsifiable)
• Its conclusions are tentative (truth is one
thing; facts are another)

16. Truth vs. Facts
• Truth = Belief, opinion; a formula of belief,
a creed (in religion, philosophy)
• Facts: Knowledge; Something that has
really occurred or is actually the case (in
science)

18. Indiana

19. Implications
• The practice of science is a complex/social
human activity
• There is an inherent limitation of science
• There is an authority in science:
observation
• There is building upon authority
• It is a purely intellectual activity

20. What Science is All About
• The world is understandable
• Scientific ideas are subject to change
• Scientific knowledge is durable
• Science cannot provide complete answers
to all questions
• Science demands evidence

22. • Science is a blend of logic and imagination
• Explains and predicts
• Scientists try to identify and avoid biases
• Science is not authoritarian
• Is organized into content disciplines and is
conducted at various institutions
• There are generally accepted ethical
principles in the conduct of science
• Scientists participate in public affairs both
as specialists and as citizens (“Public
Intellectuals”)

23. Logic
• Logic in science is
the syllogistic logic
of Aristotle.
Omne animal est
substantia, omnis
homo est animal,
ergo omnis homo
est substantia.
384-322 BCE

24. • The form of reasoning used by scientists is
the tried and true inductive-deduction
method
• Operational methods:
– Induction: The assemblage of concepts and
data from which we reach a general
proposition (synthesis)
– Deduction: A hypothesis is deduced, its
conditions and expected results (analysis)

26. • The chain of reasoning is continued until
we reach a result or condition that is
subject to test, and we make this test
• If the result of testing is not as predicted
(but the steps and deductions were
correct) our hypothesis is false or rejected
• If the result of the test is as predicted, this
supports the original hypothesis (“it is
consistent with”)

27. Scientific Laws, Theories, and
Hypotheses
• Law: (L. lex, a rule) a formulation
describing a relationship observed to be
invariable between or among phenomena
for all cases in which the specified
conditions are met
• Establishes the relationship between cause
and effect

28. Examples of Scientific Laws
• Boyle's Law
• Charles and Gay-Lussac
• Dulong-Petit law
• Laws of Kepler
• Beer-Lambert
• Newton's laws of motion
• Law of heat conduction
• General law of gravitation
• Coulomb's law
• Ohm's Law
• Kirchhoff's Laws
• Maxwell's equations
• Poiseuille's law
• Radiation laws
• Planck's Law of Radiation
• Wien's law
• Stefan-Boltzmann law
• Thermodynamics

29. Scientific Theory
• Theory (L. theoria, to contemplate): A
systematically organized knowledge
applicable in a relatively wide variety of
circumstances, especially a system of
assumptions, accepted principles, and
rules of procedure devised to analyze,
predict or otherwise explain the nature or
behavior of a specified set of phenomena

30. Examples of Scientific Theories
• Chaos theory
• Graph theory
• Number theory
• Probability theory
• Extreme value theory
• Algorithmic information theory
• Computation theory
• Rational Choice Theory
• Game theory
• Grand unification theory
• Quantum field theory
• String theory
• Superstring theory
• Acoustic theory
• Theory of relativity
• Special theory of relativity
• General theory of relativity
• Antenna theory
• Theory of everything
• Kaluza-Klein theory
• M-theory
• Loop quantum gravity theory
• Giant impact theory
• Theory of evolution
• The Cell Theory
• Gene Theory
• Critical theory
• Value theory
• Music theory
• Ladder theory

32. How Science Works

34. Scientific Hypothesis
• Hypothesis: (Gr. = foundation for an
argument) speculation about how to
explain facts or observations
• To avoid biases you test a null hypothesis
• You never “prove” anything by testing a
hypothesis; you just show whether facts
are consistent or not with your hypothesis
• To reject a hypothesis is more conclusive

35. Example of a Scientific
Hypothesis
• Any testable
prediction
• Copernicus'
notion that the
Earth revolves
around the sun
1473-1543

36. Rules and Conduct of Scientific
Method
1. Full and open communication of ideas
(incl. publication with peer review)
[“publish or perish”]
2. Appeal to the evidence
3. Mutability of theoretical positions
(flexibility, adversary replication; self-
correction)
4. Normal science vs. Revolutions

37. Scientific Revolutions
• De Revolutionibus
['celestium orbium‘]
(1530-1543, 1543)

38. Thomas S. Kuhn
• 1922-1996
• Historian and
philosopher of science
• Published in 1962 “The
Structure of Scientific
Revolutions”

39. • A scientific community practices its trade
based on a set of received beliefs
• Normal science “is predicated on the
assumption that the scientific community
knows what the world is like“
• Scientists take great pains to defend that
assumption
• “Normal science often suppresses
fundamental novelties because they are
necessarily subversive”

40. • Research is “a strenuous and devoted attempt to
force nature into the conceptual boxes supplied
by professional education”
• A paradigm shift in professional
commitments to shared assumptions takes
place when an anomaly “subverts the
existing tradition of scientific practice”
• These shifts are scientific revolutions: “the
tradition-shattering complements to the
tradition-bound activity of normal science”

41. The Case of Stomach Ulcers
1982: Barry Marshall and Robin Warren
2005: Nobel Prize

42. • New assumptions (paradigms/
theories) require the reconstruction of
prior assumptions and the reevaluation
of prior facts (difficult and time
consuming)
• It is strongly resisted by the established
community
• When a shift takes place, “a scientist's
world is qualitatively transformed [and]
quantitatively enriched by fundamental
novelties of either fact or theory”

43. Examples of Paradigm Shifts
• Heliocentric model of the Solar System
• Law of Gravity
• Periodic Table of Elements
• Evolution by Natural Selection
• Planetary model of the atoms
• Special and General Relativity
• Structure of the DNA
• Plate Tectonics

44. Plate

45. Occam's Razor
• William of Ockham
(1270-1349), English
philosopher
• Pluralitas non est
ponenda sine
necessitate
• Principle of parsimony
(The KISS principle)

47. Contact

48. How to Approach the Study of
the History of Scientific Ideas
• Lexicographic (What?, When?, Where?)
– Only part of the story
• Chronological (When?, What?)
– Problems with atomization
• Biographical (Who?, What?, How?, Where?,
When?)
– Partial
• Cultural and Sociological (What? Where?,
When?, Why?)
– Broad view
• Problematic (What?, How?, Who?)
– “Study problems, not periods”

49. Scientific Myths vs. Facts
• Myths are the product of lack of critical
thinking
• Propelled by provincialism/tribalism
• It is easier to believe than to know
• Check the facts!
• Example: Coriolis effect in Australian sinks

51. Simpson’s

52. Final Thought
Experiments

53. Historians vs. Scientists
• Different training: historians are usually
specialized on periods of time + places
• Scientists are more interested in the process of
discovery
• For historians context is crucial; for scientists it is
all about “insight”
• “When scientists concentrate on the study of
isolated objects and processes they seem to
operate within an intellectual vacuum” Mayr

54. Scientific Progress Requires…
• Time
• Communication among scientists
• Freedom from political, religious or social
constraints
• Availability of technology

55. Dangers in the Study of History
of Science
• Timeliness (historical relativism)
• Simplification (ignoring context)
• Silent Assumptions (our own biases)

56. Ten Problems in History and
Philosophy of Science
(according to Peter Galison)
1. What is context?: history vs. philosophy
2. Purity: pure vs. basic vs. applied
3. Argumentation: thought experiments
4. Making things: Is a hybrid rose a rose?
5. Fabrication: clones, enhancements
6. Political technologies: privacy, copyrights
7. Microhistory: narratives of short-lived events
8. Globality: science as a global enterprise
9. Relentless historicism, escape from history
10. Scientific doubt: The socio-political issue of uncertainty

57. Why to Study History of
Scientific Ideas
• Because it makes people better scientists

58. Some Questions
• Why do we study “biology” and not
“biography”?
• Why “astronomy” and not “astrology”?
• Why “Oceanography” and not
“oceanology”?
• Are names important in science?

59. Prove that Santa Claus Does
not Exist

60. Are our brains wired to achieve supremacy of
rationality over emotions? If not, why?

61. More
• Why most people have trouble
understanding how science works?
• It is because of its complexities vs. the
day-to-day facts of life?
• Does scientific explanation have to be
elegant?
• Is scientific endeavor pure, i.e., is science
value free? (scientists working for defense
contractors, pharmaceutical companies)

63. And more…
• Do scientists
discover in order to
know or know in
order to discover?
• “Only a prepared
mind makes
discoveries”
1822-1895