The two scientific disciplines that seem most likely to be able to bring elements to the question of free will are physics (which studies the laws of nature) and neurosciences (which studies the functioning of the nervous system and therefore … Read More
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
This debate is particularly highlighted in the polemic which opposed at the beginning of the 18th century (from 1714 to 1716) Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in a famous epistolary exchange where Samuel Clarke made himself the lawyer of … 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
Before Popper, Kant had proposed a solution to Hume’s problem that also called for knowledge that relates to the world of observations while preceding those observations. The difference is that, for Kant, this knowledge is a priori truths, which puts … 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
According to Popper, falsifiability provides a solution to the problem of induction, raised by Hume, and to that of demarcation, which he also calls Kant’s problem. Popper explains that he was influenced by Kant, but benefited from a different context: … 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
Contexts of justification and discovery Hans Reichenbach, who was close to logical positivism, distinguished between context of justification and context of discovery. The discovery context relates to the process that leads to proposing a theoretical result, while the justification context … Read More
Bayesian reasoning Bayesian reasoning is a method based on inferences. This reasoning builds from observations a probability of the cause of a given event. The adjective “Bayesian” comes from British mathematician Thomas Bayes (1702-1761). It is him who formulated Bayes’ … Read More
Criticism of science Paul Feyerabend in his book wanted to show that there is no single description of the scientific method that can be broad and general enough to encompass all the methods and approaches used by scientists. He criticized … Read More
The most powerful scientific statements are usually those offering the broadest scope of application; Newton’s third law (on the equal reciprocal attraction of heavy bodies) is the perfect example. But it is obviously not possible for scientists to test each … Read More
