Criticisms (Scientific method in the three worlds. ) To introduce this section, it is useful to recall the central points of Popperian philosophy which are conducive to a critical analysis of refutability. For Popper, falsifiability concerns only the logical relationship … Read More
Popperian falsifiability Karl Popper remarked that general relativity made it possible to make predictions which very well might not have been verified, whereas other theories found confirmation in everything. Moreover, Einstein himself said that there is no logical method to … Read More
Among the attempts to dismantle the first horn of Hume’s fork, Henderson mentions Kant’s approach discussed later and that of Bayes. Bayesian logic is not ampliative: it does not provide more information than that contained in the premises and observations. … Read More
Complementarity between analytical and synthetic methods The study and understanding of phenomena, for example biological, requires the use of different scientific methods of research and reflection. The two major scientific methods, complementary, are reductionist analysis and systemic transdisciplinary synthesis. Reductionist … Read More
Dialectics, a process that leads us to the knowledge of Forms and ultimately to the highest Form of the Good (Seyffert, Nettleship, and Sandys 1894, 481), through discussion, reasoning, questionnaire, and interpretation, has preoccupied philosophers since antiquity (Corbett and Connors … Read More
Falsifiability (also referred to as the use of refutability) was introduced by Karl Popper and is considered an important concept in epistemology, allowing to draw a line between scientific theories and those that are not. An assertion, a hypothesis, is … Read More
The logical positivists would have considered string theory as a speculative metaphysics. The instrumentalist aspect of logical positivism does not correspond with the opinions of string theorists. From the point of view of Popper’s falsifiability, [1] we clearly distinguish between … Read More
The essential principle of coordination in GR is the principle of equivalence, including a negative heuristic. The argument “is not that all reference frames are equivalent, but that the classical coordination of uniform motion in a straight line with the … Read More
The classic example of a successful research program is Newton’s gravitational theory, probably the most successful Lakatosian research program. Initially, Newton’s gravitational theory faced a lot of “anomalies” (“counterexamples”) and contradicted the observational theories that supported these anomalies. But supporters … Read More
Both general relativity and quantum mechanics are paradigms in Kuhn’s sense[1]. Both coexist simultaneously. But in Kuhn’s scheme there is no such situation in which two simultaneous paradigms coexist peacefully. Kuhn’s paradigm is defined primarily from a sociological point of … Read More
Sfetcu, Nicolae (2019). “Lakatos on Dogmatic Falsificationism”, in Telework, URL = https://www.telework.ro/en/lakatos-on-dogmatic-falsificationism/ Abstract Dogmatic (naturalist) falsificationism accepts the falsifiability of all scientific theories without qualification but preserves an infallible empirical basis. He is strictly empiric without being inductivist: he … Read More
Sfetcu, Nicolae (2019). “Analogy of intelligence with other disciplines”, in Telework, URL = https://www.telework.ro/en/analogy-of-intelligence-with-other-disciplines/ Abstract Intelligence analysis has many important epistemological resemblances with science (problem solving, discovery, skillful use of tools, knowledge verification) and is more interested in a … Read More
