7 - Philosophy of Science

Philosophy of scienceVladimir Ryabov, PhDPrincipal Lecturer in Information TechnologyKemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences

ContentsWhat is science and philosophy of science?Knowledge and knowledge acquisitionWhat is a theory? Model and theoryThe concept of paradigmMethod and methodology

What is science?The main objective of science is acquisition of knowledge.

Social and ethical aspects of knowledge are always important.

Science is a complex phenomenon that is characterized byobjectivitycriticalitytestabilityself-correctionautonomyadvancement

Objectivity of scienceScience studies phenomena existing in reality, but at the same time it is individual activity.The personal preferences of individual researchers should not affect the result.The requirement of repeatability: scientific experimental results have to be repeatable under some conditions.

Criticality of scienceCriticality refers to sceptical and evaluative attitudes towards all kinds of presuppositions.It should be possible to question everything in science: presuppositions, concepts, theories and hypotheses, reasoning, experiments, and conclusions of findings.

Testability of scienceScientific theories should be testable.Each scientific discipline has specific methods for this (e.g., empirical testing).The more intensively it is possible to test a theory, the better.If science does not satisfy the requirement of testability, it turns into pseudo-science.

Self-correction of scienceSelf-correction is connected to criticality and testability.Science neither needs nor tolerates external instructions for the evaluation of its results.A critical scientific discussion often leads to research correcting its own errors.

Autonomy of scienceScience must not be dependant on other institutions of society, which is problematic in reality.It must be possible to direct scientific work and it is in practice directed from outside of the scientific community.The objectives of research are nowadays occasionally formulated in social, financial and production environments.

Advancement of scienceBased on the above characteristics, science represents the most rational tool used by man to analyze reality.There is no a scientific method which would always produce only absolute, correct results, if improved to perfection.Scientific truth is a relative concept. Science is always linked to a point of view and background information.

What is philosophy of science (PS)?The basic question of the PS is critical evaluation of the ideas and assumptions concerning the science.The PS does not limit itself to descriptive part (describing the nature of scientific research and knowledge), but it also aims at representing what science could or should be.

Research field of the PSResearch Field of the Philosophy of ScienceGeneral PartSpecific PartQuestions common to all disciplines (e.g., epistemology and the theory of scientific reasoning)Studying philosophical and methodological bases of the special sciences

General part of the PSEpistemology, which studies possibilities and prerequisites for acquiring knowledge, different forms of knowledge and reliability.Theory of scientific reasoning (i.e. logics) studies the questions:What are the sources of scientific knowledge?How scientific hypotheses are formed?How scientific claims are reasoned?Prerequisites allowing scientific community to reasonably accept the result as a part of scientific knowledge?How reliable and accurate scientific knowledge could be?Development stages and changes in scientific knowledge? Deduction, induction, adduction, analysis and synthesis.

General part of the PS (continued)Theory of scientific concept and theory formation examines how scientific knowledge is expressed and presented:Where the concepts used in a theory are coming from? Are they sufficient and essential? How can we formulate correct and realistic concepts?Basic requirements for a scientific concept?What kind of definitions are used in science?What concept types can be found in science?How can the meaning of scientific concepts be specified?What are the laws, theories and models?Structure of scientific theories?What is the epistemological status of the theoretical terms in theories?

General part of the PS (continued)Objectives of Science:Why scientific knowledge is obtained and what is it used for?A problem of whether the scientific knowledge can be objective and free of values.Special ways of using the scientific knowledge:Explanation of facts and regularities and prediction of new facts.Theory of scientific explanation:Structure of scientific explanations.Different types of explanation, such as causal, teleological, functional, and genetic explanations.Contrast between explaining and understanding.

Specific part of the PSThe focus is on study of philosophical and methodological bases of the special sciences:The philosophy of physics: concepts of time and space, and interpretation problem of quantum theory .The philosophy of social sciences: structure of the social activity and decision-making .The philosophy of mathematics: mathematical objects (groups, numbers), their existence and special nature of knowledge concerning these objects.All of these are closely related to the traditional fields of philosophy, such as the philosophy of nature, law, society, human mind, history and linguistics.

ContentsWhat is science and philosophy of science?Knowledge and knowledge acquisitionWhat is a theory? Model and theoryThe concept of paradigmMethod and methodology

EpistemologyThe Greek word episteme often translated as knowledge. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge.Epistemological theories:RationalismEmpiricismIdealismPhenomenalism

Defining knowledgeThe most influential attempt to define knowledge can be traced back to Plato. He defined knowledge as justified true belief.One implication of this definition is that one can't be said to "know" something just because one believes it and that belief turns out to be true.Knowledge, therefore, is distinguished from true belief by its justification, and much of epistemology is concerned with how true beliefs might be properly justified. This is sometimes referred to as the theory of justification.

Defining knowledge (continued)This viewpoint still prevailed at least as late as Bertrand Russels early 20th century book The Problems of Philosophy.The Problems show that there are situations in which a belief may be justified and true, and yet most would not consider it to be knowledge. Although being a justified, true belief is necessary for a definition of knowledge, it is not sufficient.So epistemologists have attempted to find strengthened criteria for knowledge. No one has yet succeeded.

What is knowledge acquisition (KA)?KA is the process of eliciting, analysing, and formalising the patterns of thought underlying some subject matter (Sowa J., Knowledge Representation, 2000).KA assumes that an expert's knowledge may be acquired by a knowledge engineer and entered into an expert system.KA is the first stage of the knowledge engineering process .

What is knowledge acquisition (KA)?5 stages in the KA process:Identification. Identifies the problem characteristics.Conceptualization. Finds Concepts to represent the knowledge.Formalization. Designs the structure to organise the knowledge.Implementation. Formulates rules, frames etc. to represent the knowledge.Testing. Validates the rules that organise the knowledge.

Explicit and tacit knowledgeExplicit and tacit knowledge are the main knowledge types in KA.Explicit knowledge is the type of knowledge explicitly represented and accessible (e.g., recorded as a document, formal knowledge).Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that enters into the production of behaviours and/or the constitution of mental states but is not ordinarily accessible to consciousness.http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/tacitknowledge.html

Tacit knowledge (continued)Tacit knowledge is intuitive, unconscious information, often culturally conditional, used much in everyday life and valid especially in familiar situations.Tacit knowledge is unspoken knowledge that only surfaces in the context of doing something or when the knower is somehow reminded of it.Knowledge we use to do everyday tasks is tacit.Much of an expert's knowledge is tacit and cannot be articulated in abstract contexts such as interviews.Knowledge acquisition schemes cannot hope to capture all of what an expert knows.

Explicit and tacit knowledge (continued)Tacit knowledgeTacit knowledgeTacit knowledgeExplicit knowledge

KA is the objective of scienceThe main objective of the scientific work is the acquisition of new knowledge through research.Research knowledge is needed:To generalise a phenomenon or to get a deeper insight into the nature of the phenomenon.To validate a theory.To understand the nature of a process.To know various factors of systems design or decision making process.

ContentsWhat is science and philosophy of science?Knowledge and knowledge acquisitionWhat is a theory? Model and theoryThe concept of paradigmMethod and methodology

What is theory?Theoria is originally a Greek word meaning watching, viewpoint.Scientific research aims at establishing theories.A theory is composed of a set of laws or definitions, which systemize a certain phenomenon either in an empirical manner, i.e. based on the knowledge gained through observations, or in a hermeneutic manner, i.e. based on the interpretation of the phenomenon.

What is theory? (continued)The essence of theory can be understood as new knowledge which is better than its predecessor if it includes more empirical evidence or has gained new empirical support, and if it produces, generates, new theories, i.e. is progressive. A research is good if it questions the existing theories and examines whether the new theory is better than its predecessor.It is impossible to carry out good research without a proper theoretical support.A good researcher has to acquire knowledge (especially theoretical) through hard work.Research grows always from the existing knowledge.

Theory and modelThe concepts of theory and model are often confused in practice.A theory is the concept system that have been previously confirmed by research, and which can be improved and developed, even corrected, but which may, however, have a specific verified status. A model, on the other hand, is a preliminary thought structure, which may develop into a new theory, or a part of a theory, depending on the results of the research, but which is still yet explored and examined.

Theory and modelhttp://www.metodix.com

ContentsWhat is science and philosophy of science?Knowledge and knowledge acquisitionWhat is a theory? Model and theoryThe concept of paradigmMethod and methodology

The concept of paradigmFrom the late 1800s paradigm refers to a thought pattern in any scientific disciplines or other epistemological context.Paradigm is a background assumption of the study.Every researcher has philosophical background assumptions concerning the objectives of the study, the conduction of the study and the received resultsThomas Kuhn defines a scientific paradigm as: What is to be observed and scrutinizedThe kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed for answers in relation to this subjectHow these questions are to be putHow the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted

The concept of paradigm

ContentsWhat is science and philosophy of science?Knowledge and knowledge acquisitionWhat is a theory? Model and theoryThe concept of paradigmMethod and methodology

Scientific methodThe scientific method is a sequence or collection of processes that are considered characteristic of scientific investigation and the acquisition of new scientific knowledge based upon physical evidence.The essential elements of the scientific method are iterations and recursions of the following four steps: CharacterizationHypothesis (a theoretical, hypothetical explanation) Prediction (logical deduction from the hypothesis) Experiment (test of all of the above) This can be called the hypothetico-deductive method.

MethodologyThe word Methodology is used in several ways. Methodology can refer to the science that studies the methods of problem solving. Most sciences have their own specific methodology. Methodology is sometimes used as a synonym for the word "method," particularly a complex method. Some usage arbiters regard this usage as pretentious and questionable. In software engineering and project management, a methodology is a codified set of recommended practices, sometimes accompanied by training materials, formal educational programs, worksheets, and diagramming tools.

ReferencesChapter 1 fromBlaxter, L., Hughes, C., and Tight, M., 2003, How to Research, 2nd Edition, Open University Press, McGraw Hill Education.

Chapter 1 fromBooth, W., Colomb, G., and Williams, J., 2003, The Craft of Research, 2nd Edition, The University of Chicago Press.